The Three Musketeers : The Captain
by Light Lamperouge
Summary: Hitsugaya gets mission to help the preparing of war in Magic world. Malfoy's continue fighting with Potter-the boy he must protect,a childish killer boy,& a cocky brat make his days go from bad to worse.Will he fail this time?Hitsugaya's 1st year, HP5
1. Letters from Hogwarts

This is the first time I really write a super manga-anime-novel crossover! This is for Merisa-chan, who gives me the idea! **By the way, I also publish it in The Prince of Tennis, Bleach, and Hunter X Hunter crossover!**

Enjoy! R&R please!

Light Lamperouge

Disclaimer : All of the original characters aren't mine

The Three Musketeers

1. Letters from~

**Echizen Ryoma**

That cocky brat just came home after played tennis with his buchou in the graduation ceremony.

"Oi, Ryoma"

"Baka Oyaji!"

"There's a letter for you?"

"Huh?"

"Maybe from your girlfriend, da?", his father gave him a letter which made from parchment. He glared his stupid father.

To: Mr. Echizen

Home beside the Shrine

And then he opened, began read it.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

HEADMASTER : ALBUS DOMBLEDORE

(ORDER OF MERLIN, FIRST CLASS, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizard)

Dear Mr. Echizen,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We wait your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, wait- there must have the best tennis club if they want you join", his father also read it from Ryoma's back.

"BAKA OYAJI! WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPEN?"

* * *

**Hitsugaya Toushirou**

"MATSUMOTO….SHIT", Hitsugaya said after his lieutenant (again) ran from her work. Suddenly, a jigoku-cho came up. It was from Soutaichou.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou, you have a mission in human world and find the community of special people who need our help to the war that will happen, Detail of your mission and the community, you will know after you get the letter"

"War?", he said. No peaceful at all. After winter war was over, now he just got a chance to (incidentally) prepare for another war. Then, his 3rd seat came and gave him a letter. The envelope was made from parchment. The addressee was for Mr. T. Hitsugaya, Desk, 10 Division Office.

The young taichou opened it.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

HEADMASTER : ALBUS DOMBLEDORE

(ORDER OF MERLIN, FIRST CLASS, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizard)

Dear Mr. Hitsugaya,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We wait your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

_The Detail of your mission and the community you will know after you get the letter. WAIT…._

_Its School…I MUST GO TO SCHOOL (AGAIN after Kurosaki's school in past) …DAMN IT_

_

* * *

_

**Zoldyck Killua**

"_Young master, there's a letter for you"_

Killua, who played with Gon Freecs, stood up and took it from his servant.

"Killua, from whom?"

"I don't know- I never get a letter before"

"Do you?"

"Yeah, just ever from my companions", Killua smiled bitterly. His companion had meant he/she who orders him to kill. The job of being assassins was always being his world. Received a letter wasn't weird thing. Especially, if this letter was another job for him. He opened and read the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

HEADMASTER : ALBUS DOMBLEDORE

(ORDER OF MERLIN, FIRST CLASS, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizard)

Dear Mr. Zoldyck,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We wait your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…..", he said in shock, made the curious Gon got the letter away from his hand.

"Lucky you, you will go to school after all. It will be amazing experience. Witchcraft and Wizardry...", Gon whispered.

"I am sure will kill them if I meet them"

"It's not a long time you need to wait"

"What?"

"Term begins on September 1. . We wait your owl by no later than 31 July, they said"

"Pardon me?"

"You can kill them after you come up at school"

"I won't join this stupid school"

"Then you can't kill them"

"What the- ?"

"The best assassin of Zoldyck family can't kill a bunch of people who use sticks for weapon", Gon annoyed him and ran.

"GON FREECS…..WAIT…..I WILL KILL YOU…."

* * *

Killua Zoldyck and Gon Freecss from Hunter X Hunter

Echizen Ryoma and Echizen Nanjirou from The Prince of Tennis

Hitsugaya Toushirou from Bleach

* * *

Sorry for this short chapter! I don't even serious for watch Hunter X Hunter, so Gomen for the OOC's personalities of the characters. I also read The Prince of Tennis in Indonesian version and they don't use the Japanese quotes from original manga. And sorry for mistakes (grammatical errors, tenses, misspells words, verb, and others). Please review so I can write the next chapter better.

Mind to Review?

Light Lamperouge


	2. The World of Cell

I am so surprised when I know this story gets review from you all….Thanks a lot. **I also publish it in Hunter X Hunter, The Prince of Tennis, and Bleach crossover!**

Enjoy! R&R please!

Light Lamperouge

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Bleach, The Prince of Tennis or Hunter X Hunter

2. The World of Cell

**Zoldyck Mansion**

"Are you really serious to attend that school?", Gon asked Killua seriously.

"You're the one who said I must go there", Killua replied. One of his servants already sent back his letter to the school. Now, he dressed up himself. According to the plan, he would leave this mansion today.

"This house will completely awful silence after you go"

"I also will be alone if I don't go. You want to go to Angelos city, right?", Killua said.

"Hmm"

"Young master, everything has done. We also have called one of our loyal companion, which is a wizard, he will accompany you to look around and buy the equipments you need"

"OK"

"He's waiting for you, in the living room now"

"I'll come", Killua walked to the living room. Gon followed him outside.

A short haired man with black eyes sat in the sofa, next to him, sat a black-green tinted haired boy who seemed so bored. When Killua entered the room, his servant introduced them.

"Young master, this is Echizen Nanjirou and his son, Ryoma. Echizen-sama and Echizen-kun, this is Master Killua and his friend, Master Freecss", Killua

"I heard much about you two. Ilumi said that you are so talented, Killua-kun. And I already met your father this summer, Gon-kun. He's well", that man talked much. Killua smiled bitterly. Had Ilumi said other things about him to this man? Meanwhile, Gon's face became so happy. He asked Nanjirou much about his father and the man answered his questions happily.

"And from my adventure in Europe, I met Ilumi. I helped him. He's so cold hearted, ya. Not like you two. You're sweet and cute. More like my son, Ryoma", Gon face turned to Ryoma, which Ryoma just gave him his I-don't-care look. And Killua just stared Nanjirou, unbelieved with the sentences he said. That Ilumi needed Nanjirou's help? It meant that Nanjirou wasn't his brother's companion for killing, but his companion as friend. This was surprised him much.

"Time's up. The plane is ready", his servant said.

"Oh, OK", Nanjirou replied.

"Sayonara Gon", Ryoma said good bye which made Gon's surprised.

"See you next year Killua, Ryoma", Gon said. Gon wanted to stay in Angelos until January, which made he and Killua wouldn't meet until summer holiday next year.

"Be careful young master", his servants said.

They entered the (Zoldyck Private ) plane and it flew to England.

**Seireitei**

His subordinate had sent a letter to Hogwarts. Hitsugaya Toushirou now was walking to the 1st Division because Yamamoto wanted to tell him the full detail of his mission.

"You have to help an organization. This organization's name is The Order of The Phoenix, but you must help them in secret. The only one who knows your existence is my old friend, Albus Dumbledore. He is the one who contact me for help. He won't tell anyone about you or about this place"

"And what's this organization's purpose?", Hitsugaya said curiously.

"To fight Lord Voldemort and the death eaters"

"Voldemort"

"Also called He Who Must Not Be Named or Do You Know Who", Hitsugaya thought, what a weird thing? Why people are afraid to call him Voldemort?

"He's the most feared wizard in century", that's the explanation.

"And why I must disguise as a student?", Hitsugaya asked.

"Because your mission includes protecting Harry Potter, the boy who lived when Voldemort attacked him with killing curse 15 years ago. He had messy black hair, a thunder-shaped scar in his forehead, wears glasses, and always against the rules"

That was a surprised for Hitsugaya. He needed to protect a boy.

"How old is he?"

"Fifteen years old. He will be in his 5th year"

"And I will be in-"

"First year, any question?"

"No", Hitsugaya said. It was so rude when he ordered to protect a child, and he will be disguised as 11 years old boy, and that Potter was 15 years old.

"Then you will come to England this 11 am. Sasakibe-fukutaichou waited you in the west gate in 10.45"

"Hai, Soutaichou"

"You may dismissed"

Hitsugaya went to his home instead his office division. He prepared his clothes, like t-shirt, shirt, and pants. Wizard could see shinigami well, so he didn't need to use his gigai.

After that, it was 10. 30 Am., he still had time to meet Matsumoto. He entered his office while his subordinates greeted him quickly and he saw his lieutenant slept in the sofa, and the paperwork now was standing so high like the mountain.

"MATSUMOTO….", he yelled.

"Ta-ta-taicho", his lieutenant wake up and saw him, without his haori or shihakusou, now he wore deep green t-shirt and jeans.

"I will go to the world for one full year. Do your works or there's won't be sake in ten years", and then he shunpoed to the west gate.

The next second,

"NOOOOOOO….", Matsumoto screamed and Hitsugaya who arrived at the west gate smiled. He entered the Senkaimon and came to England.

(**A/N : Just skip their activities in the Diagon Alley since I have no idea what should I write and I don't read the scene of the golden trio in Diagon Alley in the book. Hitsugaya's wand was 20 cm, from willow and ice dragon heartstring, Echizen's from pine, 25.5 cm, with phoenix feather, and Killua's 28 cm, from ash with unicorn hair)**

**King cross station**

Hitsugaya was looking for the platform. His platform was 9 and ¾. He looked worry, his train would departure at 11 am and it was 10.55 now.

He looked at platform 9 and 10._ Could the platform was between the 9 and 10?_

He breathed deeply, looked around and noticed that no people watch him carefully and ran. He felt the sensation like he just entered to another dimension and looked around and felt relief. The Hogwarts Express was waiting for him.

He tried to find an empty compartment, but seemed to fail. Then, in the last compartment he asked a round faced boy.

"Could I sit here?"

"Of-of course", the boy replied. There are also a platina-blonde haired girl who read a magazine upside-down, a red haired girl, a silver-haired boy, a black-green tinted haired boy, and a messy-black haired boy whom he guessed as Potter according to Soutaichou's explanation.

So, Hitsugaya put his trunk and sat next to the silver-haired boy.

"What's your name?", they silver haired boy asked him.

"Toushirou Hitsugaya", he replied.

"I'm Killua. This is Ginny, and the blonde girl is Luna, that's Neville, and he's Ryoma", Killua pointed each of them.

"Nice to meet you", he added.

"Anata wa doko ni sunde imasu ka", Ryoma asked him, made Hitsugaya's surprised.

"Seireitei"

"Nani", Ryoma asked more. Their conversation in Japanese made Ginny and Nevile were surprised.

"Shinigami", Killua whispered. Hitsugaya felt unbelievable. This boy knew that he was a shinigami.

"I've read them a lot", Killua explained.

"Uhm", Ryoma was back to his silence mode.

"Watashi wa Zorudikku Kirua. Kore wa Echizen Ryoma. Yoroshiku"

"Yoroshiku", had friends from Japanese made Hitsugaya was more comfortable than before.

"You three are foreigners, right?", Neville asked them.

"Yes"

"Which year-"

"First", they said together.

"And your age?"

"Twelve", said Killua.

"Twelve", from Echizen.

"Eleven", Hitsugaya replied.

"But, why-?"

"Because we just got the letter this summer", Ryoma replied coldly.

They didn't have any conversation again since Ginny was too shy whenever he saw Ryoma's and Hitsugaya's face or when Killua smiled at her frequently. Luna still read his magazine and potter didn't do anything. Neville was touching and staring his Mimbulus Mimbletonia.

Ron and Hermione did not turn up for nearly one hour, by which the time the food trolley Hitsugaya had already refused to buy anything, and so Ryoma did. However, Killua bought all the trolley for them.

"I am sweet-tooth. Yes", he answered Ginny's questioned face and smiled, made her blushed than before. Then he began to eat the Chocolate frog.

Harry, Ginny, and Neville had finished their pumpkin pasties and were busy swapping chocolate frog cards when the compartment door slid open and they walked in, accompanied by Crookshanks and a shrilly hooting Pigwidgeon in his cage.

"I'm starving", said Ron, stowing Pigwidgeon next to Hedwig, grabbing a Chocolate Frog from Harry and throwing himself into the seat next to him.

"Well, there are two fifth year prefects from each house", said Hermione. "Boy and girl from each", she added.

"And guess whose Slytherin prefect?"

"Malfoy", Harry said bitterly, certain his worst fear would be confirmed.

"Yeah. And that complete _cow _Pansy Parkinson", Hermione said viciously.

"Would you please to shut up your mouth, now?", Ginny said with sarcastic tone which made Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at her, disbelieved.

"They just slept now", she added. Then Ron and Hermione looked to the seats in front of them, saw three boy who just slept now. They slept so deeply.

"Three midget"

"Shut up, Ron!", Hermione said.

"Are they first year?", she asked Ginny.

"Yes. From Japan, I think"

"Interesting!", Hermione said happily.

30 minutes spent in silence.

"Ah, I can't stand longer"

"I wake, so you can yell again", Hitsugaya said. Echizen and Killua woke up too.

"I am Hermione Granger. This is Ronald Weasley, and what is your name?"

"Toushirou Hitsugaya"

"So, Toushirou-"

"It's Hitsugaya"

"Bloody hell-", Ron said.

"People in Japanese use the family name first cause it's impolite if you call them by first name unless you're so close to them. By the way, I'm Killua Zoldyck, but you can call me Killua instead of Zoldyck", he explained." And this is Ryoma Echizen", Killua added.

"Owh, OK", Hermione said.

"How old are you?", he asked Ryoma.

"Twelve"

"But I'll never see you around"

"They've got the letter this summer, so they will be in first year", Ginny added.

"That's make a point", Hermione said, and then the compartment door opened for the third time. Draco Malfoy was smirking at Harry between his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

"What?", he said aggressively before Malfoy could open his mouth.

"Manners, Potter, or I'll give you a detention", drawled Malfoy,"You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out the power of punishments"

"Yeah", said Harry," but you unlike me,-are a git, so get out and leave us alone"

Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville laughed. Malfoy's lip curled.

"Tell me, how it feels being second-best to Weasley, Potter?", he asked.

"Shut Up, Malfoy", said Hermione sharply.

"Why you just stand there? Didn't you hear her?", Ryoma asked him, while Hitsugaya and Killua glared Malfoy.

"Three midgets protect you, Potter. One white haired, silver haired and black-green tinted. Hey, You all dyed your hair, right?", Malfoy smiled sarcastically.

Hitsugaya couldn't think normally. This guy was awfully annoying.

_He better shut up or I will Daiguren Hyourinmaru his ass._

He stood up and came face to face with Malfoy.

"Don't take my portion, Shiro-chan", Killua said and followed him. Echizen also stood up. Hitsugaya usually would protest if someone called him Shiro-chan, but his attention now was full at Malfoy. They walked far from Luna's compartment.

"Do you all know about the unforgivable curses?", Ryoma asked. Malfoy was surprised.

"Yeah, why you don't do it to us?"

"Anything you want. Avada Kedavra", Malfoy pointed his wand to Hitsugaya and yelled. At the same time, Crabbe also shouted,

"Crucio", to Killua.

"Imperio", to Echizen. But the unforgivable curses didn't have any effect to them.

"You still have lots more to work on", Echizen said. And they three walked back to their compartment.

**For explanation, Echizen activated his State of Self Actualization when Goyle cursed him. Having been repeatedly tortured since birth, Killua has been conditioned to possess extreme tolerance for poison, electricity and pain, so the Cruciatus curse didn't work for him. And for Hitsugaya, you all know that the killing curse didn't have any effect since he was already **_**dead. **_**Please give me review so I can write the next chapter better**_**. Happy Hallowe'en!  
**_

_**Japanese sentences :**_

_**Sayonara (Good Bye)  
**_

_**Anata wa doko ni sunde imasu ka.(Where are you from?)**_

**_Watashi wa Zorudikku Kirua. Kore wa Echizen Ryoma. (I am Killua Zoldyck. This is Ryoma Echizen.)_**

_**Yoroshiku (Nice to Meet you)**_

_**Nani (What?)  
**_

**Mind to Review?**

**Light Lamperouge**


	3. Choices

I get reviews! Wow! Thanks a lot!** By the way, I also publish it in Hunter X Hunter, The Prince of Tennis, and Bleach crossover!**

Enjoy! R&R please!

Light Lamperouge

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Bleach, The Prince of Tennis, or Hunter X Hunter

**3. Choices**

The Golden Trio, Ginny, Luna, and Neville said goodbye to Hitsugaya, Echizen, and Killua. The boys now was sitting one the boat, ready to saw Hogwarts, Hitsugaya noticed how many of 1st year students felt nervous. His feel suddenly was better when he saw the huge castle.

Grubbly-Plank knocked the castle door three times. The door swung open at once. A tall black-haired witch came over. She had a very stern face.

"The first years, Professor McGonagall", said she.

"Thank you. I will take them from here"

She pulled the door wide.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone. They all now were in empty small chamber outside the hall. Professor McGonagall spoke to them,

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term blanquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seat in the great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you're here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts"

"The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house had noble history and each produced outstanding wizards and witches. While you're in Hogwarts, your triumph will earn your house points and while anyrulebreaking will lose house points. T the end of the year the house with most point is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever the house becomes your", she added.

"The Sorting ceremony will take lace in a few minute in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten your selves up as much as you can while you're waiting"

Ryoma comforted himself with the robes he should wear. It isn't really nice for him. Hitsugaya tried to tame his hair. And Killua just stopped himself from chewing more candy.

Then, she opened the door and first year students followed her. They stopped when she did, and then Hitsugaya saw the most awful hat he had ever seen. The hat suddenly moved and somehow, it sang which made Ryoma rather surprise because his dad never told him about the wizarding world.

**In times of old when I was new,**

**And Hogwarts barely started,**

**The founders of our noble school,**

**Thought never to be parted,**

**United by a common goal,**

**They had the selfsame yearning,**

**To make the world's best magic school,**

**And pass along their learning.**

"**Together we will build and teach!"**

**The four good friends decided,**

**And never did they dream,**

**That they might some day be divided,**

**For were there such friends anywhere,**

**As Slytherin and Gryffindor?**

**Unless it was the second pair**

**Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?**

**So how could it have gone so wrong?**

**How could such friendships fail?**

**Why, I was there and so can tell,**

**The whole sad, sorry tale.**

**Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those whose**

**Ancestry is purest."**

**Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose**

**Intelligence is surest."**

**Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those**

**With brave deeds to their name."**

**Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,**

**And treat them just the same."**

**These differences caused little strife,**

**When first they came to light,**

**For each of the four founders had**

**A house in which they might**

**Take only those they wanted,**

**So, for instance, Slytherin**

**Took only pure-blood wizards**

**Of great cunning, just like him,**

**And only those of sharpest mind**

**Were taught by Ravenclaw**

**While the bravest and the boldest**

**Went to daring Gryffindor.**

**Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,**

**And taught them all she knew,**

**Thus the houses and their founders**

**Retained friendships firm and true.**

**So Hogwarts worked in harmony**

**For several happy years,**

**But then discord crept among us**

**Feeding on our faults and fears.**

**The houses that, like pillars four,**

**Had once held up our school,**

**Now turned upon each other and,**

**Divided, sought to rule.**

**And for a while it seemed the school**

**Must meet an early end,**

**What with dueling and with fighting**

**And the clash of friend on friend**

**And at last there came a morning**

**When old Slytherin departed**

**And though the fighting then died out**

**He left us quite downhearted.**

**And never since the founders four**

**Were whittled down to three**

**Have the houses been united**

**As they once were meant to be**

**And now the Sorting Hat is here**

**And you all know the score:**

**I sort you into houses**

**Because that is what I'm for,**

**But this year I'll go further,**

**Listen closely to my song:**

**Though condemned I am to split you**

**Still I worry that it's wrong,**

**Though I must fulfill my duty**

**And must quarter every year**

**Still I wonder whether Sorting**

**May not bring the end I fear.**

**Oh, know the perils, read the signs,**

**The warning history shows,**

**For our Hogwarts is in danger**

**From external, deadly foes**

**And we must unite inside her**

**Or we'll crumble from within**

**I have told you, I have warned you…**

**Let the Sorting now begin.**

With a last frowning look that swept the four house tables, Professor McGonagall lowered her eyes to her long piece of parchment and called out the first name.

"Abercrombie, Euan."

The terrified-looking boy Harry had noticed earlier stumbled forwards and put the Hat on his head; it was only prevented from falling right down to his shoulders by his very prominent ears. The Hat considered for a moment, and then the rip near the brim opened again and shouted:

"_**GRYFFINDOR"**_

Harry clapped loudly with the rest of Gryffindor house as Euan Abercrombie staggered to their table and sat down, looking as though he would like very much to sink through the floor and never be looked at again.

Slowly, the long line of first-years thinned. In the pauses between the names and the Sorting Hat's decisions, Harry could hear Ron's stomach rumbling loudly.

"Echizen, Ryoma"

That was the golden eyes boy, Harry thought. Harry felt that he liked that boy.

_Cocky brat, ambitious, Slytherin's best. But you're sure protecting them who need it. _

Shit, Ryoma cursed.

"_**GRYFFINDOR"**_

Ginny's trembling hand shook Ryoma's and Ryoma smiled widely for his luck this time. Ginny blushed when he sat next to her.

"Hitsugaya, Toushirou"

"Ah, that midget"

"Shut up, Ron", said Hermione sharply

_You're dead? Well, that's not my problem. Plenty of courage. Child prodigy, eh? Very loyal. Good ones for Slytherin for your ambitions._

The hat must be joking. Slytherin is where Malfoy and his gang stood up, said Hitsugaya in his mind.

_**What will you do to my master? I'll surely freeze you into nothing if you just annoyed him, Hyourinmaru said calmly.**_

Iprefer Gryffindor, Hitsugaya said again_._

"_**GRYFFINDOR"**_

Hitsugaya stepped down to Gryffindor table. He joined the golden trio.

"Congratulation, Hitsugaya"

"Thanks, Granger"

It seemed that Hermione didn't angry even that Hitsugaya called her by her last name which made Ron and Harry shocked. The only one who called her in her last name was Malfoy no- all Slytherin, of course.

Hermione was amused the way Hitsugaya talked. He seemed so mature, or perhaps she thought that she just oftenly hang out with two rule breakings-pranksters and forget the maturity is.

They cheated a long way when Harry and Ron just stared at them.

"It's Z, that silver boy may be come to our house", Ron said happily. Harry felt the same way with Ron. Harry also liked the three boys mostly because their action toward Malfoy.

"Zoldyck-", Professor McGonagall breathed deeply. It seemed taking a long time since she heard that read the list when she saw Zoldyck's name. And of course she knew this family er- assassin family well. Their reputation were famous enough even in England and particularly the wizarding world

"Well, it's my turn at all", Killua said to himself, felt so worried why it's just very difficult to McGonagall said his name. Did she know anything about his family?

"Alluka"

"Allu-", Echizen whispered.

"Not Killua?", Ginny asked.

"No idea", Hitsugaya said.

"May be they're just related", Hermione guessed and she saw Killua's face frowned when a boy with long dark hair came up and wore that ha_t._

_"**GRYFFINDOR"**_

The boy sat next to Ron, making him uncomfortable.

"What's your relationship with Killua?", Harry suddenly felt that he should know it.

"Brother", Alluka said coldly.

"See", Hermione said satisfied,"They're just family, like Weas-"

"Listen", Ron stopped her when he saw McGonagall said Killua's name.

"Zoldyck,-"

"Killua"

Killua walked toward the hat and sat. Before it touched him, the hat already shouted,

_"**GRYFFINDOR"**_

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny clapped loudly. _**  
**_

Killua sat next to Harry, in front of Alluka, still surprised that his missing brother now was here, didn't talk to anyone yet.

Professor McGonagall picked up the Hat and stool and marched them away as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.

Whatever his recent bitter feelings had been towards his Headmaster, Harry was somehow soothed to see Dumbledore standing before them all.

Between the absence of Hagrid and the presence of those dragonish horses, he had felt that his return to Hogwarts, so long anticipated, was full of unexpected surprises, like jarring notes in a familiar song. But this, at least, was how it was supposed to be: their Headmaster rising to greet them all before the start-of-term feast.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speechmaking, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

There was an appreciative laugh and an outbreak of applause as Dumbledore sat down neatly and threw his long beard over his shoulder so as to keep it out of the way of his plate - for food had appeared out of nowhere,

Full of it, Killua was pleased. He ate them and felt that it was alright. Hitsugaya ate them but found that European cuisine were plain, no spice or wasabi or something like that, while Echizen felt disappointed about the dinner. He hoped deeply in his heart that they would serve him Japanese food, not this plain food.

After the dinner had served, Professor Dumbledore stood up and said.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," said Dumbledore. "First-years ought to know that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students - and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too." (Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged smirks.)

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four-hundred-and-sixty second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.

"We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic applause, during which Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged slightly panicked looks; Dumbledore had not said for how long Grubbly- Plank would be teaching.

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the -"

He broke off, looking enquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she was not much taller standing than sitting, there was a moment when nobody understood why Dumbledore had stopped talking, but then Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "Hem, hem," and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.

Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk. Other members of staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Sprout's eyebrows had disappeared into her flyaway hair and Professor McGonagall's mouth was as thin as Harry had ever seen it. No new teacher had ever interrupted Dumbledore before. Many of the students were smirking; this woman obviously did not know how things were done at Hogwarts.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of welcome."

Her voice was high-pitched, breathy and little-girlish and, again, Harry felt a powerful rush of dislike that he could not explain to himself; all he knew was that he loathed everything about her, from her stupid voice to her fluffy pink cardigan.

She gave another little throat-clearing cough ("hem, hem") and continued.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking up at me!"

Harry glanced around. None of the faces he could see looked happy. On the contrary, they all looked rather taken-aback at being addressed as though they were five years old

"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"

Students exchanged looks at this; some of them were barely concealing grins.

"I'll be her friend as long as I don't have to borrow that cardigan," Parvati whispered to Lavender, and both of them lapsed into silent giggles.

Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again ("hem, hem"), but when she continued, some of the breathiness had vanished from her voice. She sounded much more businesslike and now her words had a dull learned-by-heart sound to them.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them for ever. The treasure trove of magical…..

Before he listened more to Umbridge, Harry saw that his friends didn't pay any attention to her, except Hermione. Echizen now was sleeping in his seat while Killua just exchanged his glare with his Alluka-brother, and even Hitsugaya just saw Umbridge with empty look.

Suddenly, Harry saw Umbridge sat down. Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead, though Harry noticed that several of them brought their hands together only once or twice before stopping. A few students joined in, but most had been taken unawares by the end of the speech, not having listened to more than a few words of it, and before they could start applauding properly, Dumbledore had stood up again.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said, bowing to her. "Now, as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held…"

"Yes, it certainly was illuminating," said Hermione in a low voice.

"Very illuminating", added Echizen, shocked the golden trio.

"Since when you wake up?"

"He listens, Ron", Hermione said.

"You two are not telling me you enjoyed it?" Ron said quietly, turning a glazed face towards Hermione and Echizen. "That was about the dullest speech I've ever heard, and I grew up with Percy."

"I said illuminating, not enjoyable," said Hermione. "It explained a lot.'

"Did it?" said Harry in surprise. "Sounded like a load of waffle to me."

"There was some important stuff hidden in the waffle," said Hitsugaya grimly.

"Was there?" said Ron blankly before he realized", you didn't listen that Umbridge, did you?"

"How about: 'progress for progress's sake must be discouraged'? How about: 'pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited'?", Hitsugaya ignored him.

"Well, what does that mean?" said Ron impatiently.

"I'll tell you what it means," said Hermione through gritted teeth. "It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."

"Pleasure", Killua said and smirk to Alluka.

There was a great clattering and banging all around them; Dumbledore had obviously just dismissed the school, because everyone was standing up ready to leave the Hall. Hermione jumped up, looking flustered.

"Ron, we're supposed to show the first-years where to go!"

"Oh yeah," said Ron, who had obviously forgotten. "Hey - hey, you lot! Midgets!"

Hitsugaya glared him impatiently. Well, he was the shortest between first years student, but he still didn't like if someone called him midget.

"Ron!"

"Well, they are, they're titchy…"

"I know, but you can't call them midgets! - First-years!" Hermione called commandingly along the table. "This way, please!"

Echizen stood up and walked lazily next to Hitsugaya. Killua followed him, left his brother with other students. They followed Ron and Hermione to Gryffindor Common Room.

"Password", the fat lady asked.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia", said Ron. Alluka looked very excited.

They climbed.

"Girls room the right, Boys room the left", explained Hermione.

Hitsugaya, Echizen, and Killua walked upstairs, went to their room. When they arrived, Killua saw his brother's silhouette in the corner room. With their strange relationship each other, even in their home, they rarely spoke to each other. He didn't remember Alluka well.

A/N: Killua was in Celestial Tower when he was around 6 and back two years after, and I think, between those two years he has gone there, Alluka was also missing.

They went to their beds. Echizen was already slept when Killua said to them.

"Oyasuminasai, Ryoma-kun, Shirou-chan, Alluka"

"Hn", Echizen said.

"Oyasuminasai –and don't call me Shirou-chan! It's Hitsugaya, Zoldyck", Hitsugaya murmured.

"Nice dream", Alluka said, much to Killua surprised. And then before realizing, he had alredy fell into another world.

**Yay! I can't say anything else except thank you from the bottom of my heart for everyone who is reviewing the last chapter. Please give me review so I can write this fanfic better.**

**Mind to Review**

**Light Lamperouge**


	4. CandyCentric : Things We Need to Study

Someone said my grammar's sick! Hey, I've checked it up in Spelling and Grammar in Ms. Word! If you think my grammar is really poor, would you please someone, become my beta?

Enjoy! R& R please!

Light Lamperouge

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, and The Prince of Tennis aren't mine

2. Candy Centric - Things We Need to Study

Professor McGonagall was now moving along the table handing out timetables.

"How's your day?", Ron asked Ryoma.

"Not bad. I just wonder how's Defense Again the Dark Arts class, what about you?"

"History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Again the Dark Arts…Binns, Snape, Trelawney , and the Umbridge woman all in one days! I wish Fred and George 'd hurry up and get those Skiving Snackboxes", said Ron grumpily.

"Skiving Snackboxes?", asked Killua.

"The products they developed for pranksters", said Harry.

"For classes?", asked Hitsugaya.

'Yes", replied Ron.

"Hermione will kill them", added Alluka.

"Hey, someone's sensitive with that word! Be careful", a boy with black hair and yellow eyes joined them.

"He is insane", said Killua.

"I am. I am insan ", he added.

"I-n-s-a-n-e, your English's horrible", said Ryoma.

"Excuse me, but my job is killing people and not for studying their languages", he added, while Killua and Alluka glared at him.

"It's what you two will say, right?", that boy turned his yellow eyes to Zoldyck brothers.

"Yeah", Killua relieved.

"By the way, what's the meaning of 'insan'? Is it in Ancient Runes?", Hermione suddenly asked.

"No. It's from my language. It means human. By the way, I'm Eyes", the boy introduced.

'Huh?", Harry's confused.

"Eyes Manikmaya, 1st year", then he was twinkling to them with his beautiful eyes and eating his breakfast again, while Hermione, Ron, and Harry were discussing about OWL and what will they do after leave Hogwarts with Fred and George.

* * *

The first lesson wasn't bad as Hitsugaya thought. History of Magic was interesting enough, at last for himself and Ryoma. They wrote about Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball in their notes, while Hitsugaya saw the Killua was chewing more candy, sharing with Alluka, and Eyes was reading his manga.

Transfiguration was OK. After McGonagall gave the instructions and a match for each student, they started trying to turn it into a needle.

Hitsugaya turned his match, to a frozen needle, Ryoma, turned his match into a sharp-and-pointy-like-needle-match, Alluka turned his match into metal ashes, and Killua's match, which made Eyes giggled whenever he saw it, turned to a pack of gum and of course he ate it when McGonagall turned away from him to watch Euan Abercrombie.

By the end of the lesson, only Eyes had made any difference with his match, Professor McGonagall gave him a rare smile, also commented.

"Well, of course there's a big gap from this year 1st year with other 1st year in the past", she said and gave them her smile," this class probably is the best 1st year in Transfiguration I've ever taught in my time in Hogwarts, more than one student can turn their matches into needles, although one's frozen and one turns into wood needle"

When they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom they found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teacher's desk, wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head. Hitsugaya was again reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad. She was worse than Kusajishi-fukutaichou.

The class was quiet as it entered the room; Professor Umbridge was, as yet, an unknown quantity and nobody knew how strict a disciplinarian she was likely to be.

"Well, good afternoon!" she said, when finally the whole class had sat down.

A few people mumbled "good afternoon" in reply.

"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge'. One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."

Many of the class exchanged gloomy looks; the order "wands away" had never yet been come by a lesson they would think interesting. Hitsugaya shoved his wand back inside his bag and pulled out quill, ink and parchment. Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:

Defense Against the Dark Arts a Return to Basic Principles

"You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."

She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by: Course Aims:

1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.

2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.

3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.

For a couple of minutes the room was full of the sound of scratching quills on parchment. When everyone had copied down Professor Umbridge's three course aims she asked, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the class.

"I think we'll try that again," said Professor Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply, 'Yes, Professor Umbridge', or 'No, Professor Umbridge'. So: has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang through the room.

"Good," said Professor Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read 'Chapter One, Basics for Beginners'. There will be no need to talk."

Professor Umbridge left the blackboard and settled herself in the chair behind the teacher's desk, observing them all closely with those pouchy toad's eyes. Hitsugaya turned to page five of his copy of Defensive Magical Theory and started to read.

It was _worse_. That Umbrigde woman told them to read and read. It was horrible than work with loads of paperwork or fought with Primera Espada.

So, the very 1st thing that came up in his head was writing a report to Soutaichou about his mission. He took a roll of parchment and began to write before realized that Echizen was already sleeping next to him, Eyes came back with his manga, while Alluka and Killua didn't even open their books. Killua was even staring fixedly at Umbridge with his hand in the air.

Hitsugaya looked at him enquiringly, but Killua merely shook his head slightly to indicate that he was not about to answer questions, and continued to stare at Professor Umbridge, who was looking just as resolutely in another direction.

After several more minutes had passed, however, Hitsugaya was not the only one watching Killua. The chapter they had been instructed to read was so tedious that more and more people were choosing to watch the elder Zoldyck's mute attempt to catch Professor Umbridge's eye rather than struggle on with 'Basics for Beginners'.

When more than half the class were staring at Killua rather than at their books, Professor Umbridge seemed to decide that she could ignore the situation no longer.

"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Killua, as though she had only just noticed him.

"Not about the chapter, no," said Killua.

"Well, we're reading just now," said Professor Umbridge, showing her small pointed teeth. "If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."

"I've got a query about your course aims," said Killua.

Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows.

"And your name is?"

"Killua Zoldyck", said him clearly

"Well, Mr. Zoldyck, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," said Professor Umbridge in a voice of determined sweetness.

"Well, I don't," said Killua bluntly. "There's nothing written about Defense Again the Dark Arts. How will we defense-again-the-dark-arts if we just sit and read them properly? And not every student in our class is as clever as my dear friends Mr. Manikmaya _or_ Mr. Echizen _or_ Mr. Hitsugaya _or_ Mr. Alluka Zoldyck"

There was a short silence in which many members of the class turned their heads to frown at the three course aims still written on the blackboard.

"Defense again the Dark Arts?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require the dark arts will attack you, Mr. Zoldyck. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"

"We're not going to use magic or trying spells or _anything_?" Eyes exclaimed loudly.

"Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr. -?"

"Manikmaya," said Eyes, thrusting his hand into the air.

Professor Umbridge, smiling still more widely, turned her back on him. Ryoma (woke up suddenly) immediately raised their hands too. Professor Umbridge's pouchy eyes lingered on Ryoma for a moment before she addressed him.

"Yes, Mr. -?"

"Echizen"

"Mr. Echizen. You wanted to ask something else?"

"Yes," said Ryoma. "Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice something that can defense us from an attack?"

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Mr. Echizen?" asked Professor Umbridge, in her falsely sweet voice.

"No, but -"

"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study.

"You will be learning about defense yourself in a secure, risk-free way -"

"What use is that?" said Killua loudly. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a -"

"Hand, Mr. Zoldyck!" sang Professor Umbridge.

Killua thrust his fist in the air. Again, Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him, but now several other people had their hands up, too.

"And your name is?" Professor Umbridge said to Hitsugaya.

"Toushirou Hitsugaya"

"Well, Mr. Hitsugaya?"

"Well, it's like Killua said, isn't it?" said Hitsugaya. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk free."

"I repeat," said Professor Umbridge, smiling in a very irritating fashion at Hitsugaya, "do you expect to be attacked during my classes?"

"No, but -"

Professor Umbridge talked over him. "I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth, "but the higher class have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed - not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."

"Half breeds? Is it more important than our lesson? Genealogy?", Echizen said angrily, couldn't believe that someone's really cared about other people genealogy.

"Hand, Mr. Echizen! As I was saying - you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day -"

"No we haven't," Eyes said, "we just -"

"Your hand is not up, Mr. Manikmaya!"

Eyes put up his hand. Professor Umbridge turned away from his.

"It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of the higher class, he actually performed on them."

"Well, he turned out to be a maniac, didn't he?"Hitsugaya said hotly. "Mind you, they said to us that they still learned loads."

"Your hand is not up, Mr. Hitsugaya!" trilled Professor Umbridge. "Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about. And your name is?" she added, staring at, whose hand had just shot up.

"Rose Zeller, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts exam? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the counter-curses and things?"

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions, Miss Zeller," said Professor Umbridge dismissively.

"Without ever practicing them beforehand?" said Rose incredulously. "Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"

"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough -"

"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" said Killua loudly, his fist in the air again.

Professor Umbridge looked up.

"This is school, Mr. Zoldyck, not the real world," she said softly.

"So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting for us out there?"

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Zoldyck."

"Oh, yeah?" said Killua. His temper, which never seemed to have been bubbling just beneath the surface in his whole life before, was now reaching the boiling point.

"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?" enquired Professor Umbridge in a horribly honeyed voice.

"Hmm, let's think…" said Killua in a mock thoughtful voice."Maybe… some assassin that curses you with Avada Kedavra!"

Rose gasped; Euan uttered a little scream, slipped sideways off his stool.

Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring at Killua with a grimly satisfied expression on her face.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Zoldyck"

The classroom was silent and still. Everyone was staring at either Umbridge or Killua.

"Now, let me make a few things quite plain."

Professor Umbridge stood up and leaned towards them, her stubby-fingered hands splayed on her desk.

"You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead -"

"Of course! I believe Harry anyway" said Killua angrily, "Voldemort's returned!"

'"Mr-Zoldyck-you-have-already-lost-your-house-ten-points-do-not-make-matters-worse-for yourself," said Professor Umbridge in one breath without looking at him. "As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie. Your life isn't in danger."

"Really?" said Killua. "I have a lot of experience in my WHOLE life that our life is always in CONSTANTLY DANGER!"

"Detention, Mr. Zoldyck!" said Professor Umbridge triumphantly. "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend.

And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners'."

Professor Umbridge sat down behind her desk. Killua, however, stood up. Everyone was staring at him; Eyes looked half-scared, half-fascinated.

"Killua, no!" Hitsugaya whispered in a warning voice, tugging at his sleeve, but Killua jerked his arm out of his reach.

"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead just because of his own stupid accord, did he?" Killua asked, his voice shaking.

He ever talked to Harry about their fighting with Voldemort in the train and he surely believed him.

There was a collective intake of breath from the class, for none of them, knew about what had happened on the night Cedric had died.

They stared avidly from Killua to Professor Umbridge, who had raised her eyes and was staring at him without a trace of a fake smile on her face.

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," she said coldly.

"ARE YOU REALLY AN INSANE-MAD-LOOPY-SUPER CRAZY-LOONY TOAD! THE HUMAN LIFE ISN'T SOMETHING YOU CAN PLAY LIKE TOYS", he shouted angrily.

"It was murder," said Killua, took a deep breath. He could feel himself shaking. He had hardly spoken to anyone about this, least of all thirty eagerly listening classmates. "Voldemort killed him and you know it. Everybody who isn't insane would know and believe it. If you don't, it means that you was as normal as loving the leprechauns' gold"

"This lesson is rubbish. And I regret deeply that my smart classmates will study with you as their teacher in a whole year", he added.

Professor Umbridge's face was quite blank. For a moment, Killua thought she was going to scream at him. Then she said, in her softest, most sweetly girlish voice, "Come here, Mr. Zoldyck, dear."

He kicked his chair aside, strode around Alluka, Hitsugaya, Ryoma, and Echizen, up to the teacher's desk. He could feel the rest of the class holding its breath. He felt so angry he did not care what happened next.

But he suddenly felt that he was too overreacted, a worrying feeling came up when he saw his brother's hard face. Alluka's face now was dark, and Killua could feel his brother was willing to take out Umbridge's heart when their eyes contacted.

Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink and started scribbling, hunched over so that Killua could not see what she was writing. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it.

"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him. He took it from her without saying a word, turned on his heel and left the room, not even looking back at his mates, slamming the classroom door shut behind him. He walked very fast along the corridor, the note to McGonagall clutched tight in his hand, and turning a corner walked slap into Peeves the poltergeist, a wide-mouthed little man floating on his back in midair, juggling several inkwells.

"Why it's Lolly Wee Zolly!" cackled Peeves, allowing two of the inkwells to fall to the ground where they smashed and spattered the walls with ink; Killua jumped backwards out of the way with a snarl.

"Get out of it, Peeves."

"Oooh, Crackpot's feeling cranky" said Peeves, pursuing him along the corridor, leering as he zoomed along above him. "What is it this time, my fine Lolly friend? Hearing voices? Seeing visions? Speaking in -" Peeves blew a gigantic raspberry "— tongues?"

"I said, leave me ALONE!" Killua shouted, running down the nearest flight of stairs, but Peeves merely slid down the banister on his back beside him.

"Oh, most think he's barking, the lolly wee lad, But some are more kindly and think he's just sad, but Peevesy knows better and says that he's mad — "

"SHUT UP!"

A door to his left flew open and Professor McGonagall emerged from her office looking grim and slightly harassed.

"What on earth are you shouting about, Zoldyck?" she snapped, as Peeves cackled gleefully and zoomed out of sight. '"Why aren't you in class?"

"I've been sent to see you," said Killua stiffly.

"Sent? What do you mean, sent?"

He held out the note from Professor Umbridge. Professor McGonagall took it from him, frowning, slit it open with a tap of her wand, stretched it out and began to read. Her eyes zoomed from side to side behind their square spectacles as she read what Umbridge had written, and with each line they became narrower.

"Come in here, Zoldyck"

He followed her inside her study. The door closed automatically behind him.

"Well?" said Professor McGonagall, rounding on him. "Is this true?"

"Is what true?" he asked, rather more aggressively than he had intended. "Professor?" he added, in an attempt to sound more polite.

"Is it true that you shouted at Professor Umbridge?"

"Yes," said Killua

"You called that she was an-insane-mad-loopy-super crazy-loony toad?"

"Yes"

"You called her lessons are rubbish?"

"Yes."

"You told her He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back?"

"Yes."

Professor McGonagall sat down behind her desk, watching Killua closely. Then she said, "Have a biscuit, Zoldyck."

"Have - what?"

"Have a biscuit," she repeated impatiently, indicating a tartan tin of cookies lying on top of one of the piles of papers on her desk. "And sit down."

He sank into a chair opposite her and helped himself to a Ginger Newt, feeling just as confused and wrong footed as he had done on that occasion.

Professor McGonagall set down Professor Umbridge's note and looked very seriously at Killua.

"Zoldyck, you need to be careful."

Killua swallowed his mouthful of Ginger Newt and stared at her. Her tone of voice was not at all what he was used to; it was not brisk, crisp and stern; it was low and anxious and somehow much more human than usual.

"Misbehavior in Dolores Umbridge's class could cost you much more than house points and a detention."

"What do you -?"

"Zoldyck, use your common sense," snapped Professor McGonagall, with an abrupt return to her usual manner. "You know where she comes from, you must know to whom she is reporting."

The bell rang for the end of the lesson. Overhead and all around came the elephantine sounds of hundreds of students on the move.

"It says here she's given you detention every evening this week, starting tomorrow," Professor McGonagall said, looking down at Umbridge's note again.

"Every evening this week!" Killua repeated, horrified. "But, Professor, couldn't you -?"

"No, I couldn't," said Professor McGonagall flatly.

"But -"

"She is your teacher and has every right to give you detention. You will go to her room at five o'clock tomorrow for the first one. Just remember: tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge."

"But I was telling the truth!" said Killua, outraged.

"Do you really think this is about truth or lies? It's about keeping your head down and your temper under control!", she added.

"Oh, OK! There's nothing wrong with the detention. I will love it much", he said sarcastically.

She stood up, nostrils wide and mouth very thin, and Killua stood up, too.

"Have another biscuit," she said irritably, thrusting the tin at him.

"No, thanks," said Killua coldly.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped.

He took one.

"Thanks," he said grudgingly.

"Didn't you listen to Dolores Umbridge's speech at the start-of-term feast, Zoldyck?"

"Yeah," said Killua . "It meant that the Ministry of Magic is trying to interfere at Hogwarts."

Professor McGonagall eyed him closely for a moment, then sniffed, walked around her desk and held open the door for him.

"Well, I'm glad you actually listened," she said, pointing him out of her office.

Then suddenly he remembered Alluka's hard expression and turned back to McGonagall's office.

"Professor, could you help me to keep an eye at Professor Umbridge? I am worried about her safety", he asked politely.

"She will be safe here", she said and muttered her eyes to him, her voice suddenly was brisk, crisp, and stern again," Don't you dare to _touch_ her even if she is horrible, Zoldyck!" she said coldly.

"No. I don't kill people anymore. I've been already retired being an assassin, Professor", Killua said and McGonagall's relieving expression grew all over her face.

"But she's in danger", Killua said more.

'I don't know the enemy who will-?" McGonagall asked but Killua already answered her before she could finish it.

"Because there's _another_ Zoldyck here, Professor! My brother!", he said it very fast.

"I know, he's Alluka, isn't he? Just promise me you will prevent him from doing something dangerous or stupid!"

'I will try but sorry, I can't promise to you, Professor. We've been separated six years ago, I've never talked to him again until yesterday actually, and I'm sure that his personal action to Professor Umbridge will be worse than mine"

"People change, Zoldyck! Perhaps your brother now is better than the one you knew six years ago", McGonagall said, looking terrified.

"Yes, people change, Professor. But assassin are extraordinary people, it will need an extraordinary incident too that will change their personality, especially in my family"

"Thanks, Professor", he added before leaving.

'You're welcome, _Killua_", McGonagall thanked him with a warm smile grew in her face.

* * *

Dinner in the Great Hall was as pleasant as usual to Killua. He was as happy as breakfast, now chewing mint candy after eating a big portion of treacle tart. Hitsugaya heard Harry argued with Angelina about Quidditch practice.

"What's happen, Granger?", he asked Hermione.

"Umbridge has given Harry detention every evening this week starting from tomorrow"

"Well, that's good", Hitsugaya said.

He was afraid of Alluka's reaction towards his brother's detention than anything. Killua's detentions certainly would disturb the elder Zoldyck's job to watch Alluka carefully. And with the assassin's ability, it was no doubt that Alluka can kill Umbridge or every people he wanted to die without any effort. His ability of course would interest Voldemort or at least one of his Death Eater. In conclusion, it would make Hitsugaya's job to protect Potter was more difficult.

"Pardon me?" asked Harry irritably.

'Ron, what did Harry use to call that woman?" asked Ryoma, ignoring Harry's glare.

"I called her liar", Harry said.

"Hey, you called her liar?" Killua grinned.

"Why suddenly you-?" asked Ron.

"This stupid git called her insane-mad-loopy-super crazy-loony toad", Hitsugaya answered.

"Brilliant!" Ron and Harry exclaimed.

"She would give you detention!" Hermione looked worried.

"I've already got one and I'm sure I am going to fall in love with it, thank you", Killua said, looking very irritably.

"Harry, at last you won't be alone", said Ron happily.

"The Ministry changes a lot", said Hitsugaya.

"It does", said Hermione.

"I just wonder why Malfoy and his cronies don't get any warning from using Unforgivable Curse on us", said Ryoma.

"WHAT-", Harry, Ron, Hermione said together, looked angry plus terrified.

'They used Unforgivable Curse on _you three!_", shouted Harry and Ron.

There was a silence in ten minutes before Hermione broke.

"Tell McGonagall"

"No", Killua said sharply.

"It's _illegal_! Tell Dumbledore instead", said Ron.

"It won't work", Alluka and Eyes said it together.

'Of course it works! It's a very serious incident! They will send Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle in Azkaban", said Harry.

"Nah, Lucius Malfoy will stand for them. And if there's a Lucius, there will be a Cornelius", Eyes said sarcastically.

* * *

**Insan means human in Indonesian**

Yeah, it's like more Killua-centric than Hitsugaya or Echizen. I will give them each, their episodes by the way. Please give me review so I can write it better. Oh, and if you think that my grammar is really poor, please would you become my beta?

Mind to Review?

Light Lamperouge


	5. The Quill Problem

I AM BACK! Happy New Year!

Enjoy! R&R please!

Light Lamperouge

Disclaimer: The Original Characters aren't mine.

3. The Quill problem

Rain pounded on the windowpanes as they strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. Harry felt as though his first day had lasted a week, but he still had a mountain of homework to do before bed. A dull pounding pain was developing over his right eye. He glanced out of a rain-washed window at the dark grounds as they turned into the Fat Lady's corridor. There was still no light in Hagrid's cabin.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia," said Hermione, before the Fat Lady could ask. The portrait swung open to reveal the hole behind it and the three of them scrambled through it.

The common room was almost empty; nearly everyone was still down at dinner. Crookshanks uncoiled himself from an armchair and trotted to meet them, purring loudly, and when Harry, Ron and Hermione took their three favorite chairs at the fireside he leapt lightly on to Hermione's lap and curled up there like a furry ginger cushion. Harry gazed into the flames, feeling drained and exhausted.

"How can Dumbledore have let this happen?" Hermione cried suddenly, making Harry and Ron jump; Crookshanks leapt off her, looking affronted. She pounded the arms of her chair in fury, so that bits of stuffing leaked out of the holes. "How can he let that terrible woman teach us? And in our OWL year, too!"

"Well, we've never had great Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" said Harry.

"You know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job; they say it's jinxed."

"Jinxed?", asked Eyes suddenly, which made Ron jumped.

"One sacked, one's death, one's locked in his trunk for nine months, and one's memory removed", Harry replied, counting his fingers.

"Yes, but to employ someone who's actually refusing to let us do magic! What's Dumbledore playing at?"

"And she's trying to get people to spy for her," said Ron darkly. "Remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying You-Know-Who's back?"

"Of course she's here to spy on us all, that's obvious, why else would Fudge have wanted her to come?" snapped Hermione.

"Stop it! You two give me a freaking headache", said Killua loudly.

"Freaking headache? Really brother? I'll give you aspirin", Alluka grinned.

"No I-", suddenly Alluka punched his brother, and Killua flew to the corner of the room.

"STOP IT YOU TWO", Echizen said.

"We have Snape's long essay!", added Eyes.

They sat down although they still sent death glare.

Killua moved his hand from his essay. Then he said.

"Ryoma, are you alright? You don't have a toothache, right?"

"No", Ryoma looked for his book in his bag before he shouted.

"CRAZY SWEETHTOOTH TURN MY SCHOOL STUFFS BACK RIGHT NOW!", he shouted. His school stuffs turned into candies, lollypops, and gums.

"No I won't! I 'd love to eat it, right Bro?", he turned to Alluka who nodded in agreement.

"YOU-"

"OI, RYOMA, BRING YOUR BAG HERE", Ron shouted.

He walked towards their direction.

"Hermione, please", said Echizen. Hermione waved her wand.

"Thanks"

"No problem"

They returned to the chairs by the fire. People were coming back from dinner now. Harry kept his face averted from the portrait hole, but could still sense the stares he was attracting.

"Shall we do Snape's stuff first?" said Ron, dipping his quill into his ink. "The properties… of moonstone… and its uses… in potion-making…" he muttered, writing the words across the top of his parchment as he spoke them. "There." He underlined the title, and then looked up expectantly at Hermione.

"So, what are the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making?"

But Hermione was not listening; she was squinting over into the far corner of the room, where Fred, George and Lee Jordan were now sitting at the center of a knot of innocent-looking first years, all of whom were chewing something that seemed to have come out of a large paper bag that Fred was holding.

"No, I'm sorry, they've gone too far," she said, standing up and looking positively furious. "Come on, Ron."

"I - what?" said Ron, plainly playing for time. "No- come on, Hermione - we can't tell them off for giving out sweets."

"You know perfectly well that those are bits of Nosebleed Nougat or - or Puking Pastilles or -"

"Fainting Fancies?" Harry suggested quietly.

One by one, as though hit over the head with an invisible mallet, the first-years were slumping unconscious in their seats; some slid right on to the floor, others merely hung over the arms of their chairs, their tongues lolling out. Most of the people watching were laughing; Hermione, however, squared her shoulders and marched directly over to where Fred and George now stood with clipboards, closely observing the unconscious first-years. Ron rose halfway out of his chair, hovered uncertainly for a moment or two, then muttered to Harry, "She's got it under control," before sinking as low in his chair as his lanky frame permitted.

"That's enough!" Hermione said forcefully to Fred and George, both of whom looked up in mild surprise.

"Yeah, you're right," said George, nodding, "this dosage looks strong enough, doesn't it?"

"I told you this morning, you can't test your rubbish on students!"

"We're paying them!" said Fred indignantly.

"I don't care, it could be dangerous!"

"Rubbish," said Fred.

"Calm down, Hermione, they're fine!" said Lee reassuringly as he walked from first-year to first year, inserting purple sweets into their open mouths.

"Yeah, look, they're coming round now," said George.

A few of the first-years were indeed stirring. Several looked so shocked to find themselves lying on the floor, or dangling off their chairs, that Harry was sure Fred and George had not warned them what the sweets were going to do.

"Feel all right?" said George kindly to a small dark-haired girl lying at his feet.

"I - I think so," she said shakily.

"Excellent," said Fred happily, but the next second Hermione had snatched both his clipboard and the paper bag of Fainting Fancies from his hands.

"It is NOT excellent!"

"Course it is, they're alive, aren't they?" said Fred angrily.

"You can't do this, what if you made one of them really ill?"

"We're not going to make them ill, we've already tested them all on ourselves, this is just to see if everyone reacts the same -"

"If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to -"

"Put us in detention?" said Fred, in an I'd-like-to-see-you-try-it voice.

"Make us write lines?" said George, smirking.

Onlookers all over the room were laughing. Hermione drew herself up to her full height; her eyes were narrowed and her bushy hair seemed to crackle with electricity.

They suddenly heard a loud BANG.

"DON'T YOU DARE TO SAY THAT OR I TURN YOU INTO ASHES", Alluka yelled.

All of them now stood up, their wands ready in their hand.

Alluka waved his wand to Hitsugaya, the white haired boy dodged it easily when he looked back at his chair, which exploded into ashes.

"Oh no! Not again", cried Hermione.

"IT'S THE BEST SPORT IN THE WORLD", Ryoma waved his wand, and a fire suddenly came up.

'Shit", Killua cursed, he waved his wand, the fire turned into candies.

"STOP IT! STOP IT YOU ALL", HItsugaya exploded.

All the windows opened, the cold wind blew.

"I'LL KILL YOU", Alluka added.

"DAMN! STOP IT! HE'S IMMORTAL", Killua shouted.

Hitsugaya's reiatsu burst and then the room suddenly was covered by ice.

"What is this?" McGonagall asked, Hermione was behind her back.

"Mr. Zoldyck, Mr. Hitsugaya, Mr. Echizen, follow me", said McGonagall. All stood in silence.

"DONE! SNAPE'S ESSAY! HE WON'T KILL ME TOMORROW", cried Eyes.

McGonagall turned his eyes to Eyes.

"Evening, Professor", Eyes walked to his room with his innocence expression, when McGonagall went out.

"Bloody hell!", said Ron

"Well, we can't do any homework with this condition"

"I'm going to bed", said Harry, Ron followed him.

* * *

Harry was starving, and he had his first detention with Umbridge at five o'clock, he headed straight for dinner without dropping off his bag in Gryffindor Tower so that he could bolt something down before facing whatever she had in store for him. He had barely reached the entrance of the Great Hall, however, when a loud and angry voice yelled, "Oy, Potter!"

"What now?" he muttered wearily, turning to face Angelina Johnson, who looked as though she was in a towering temper.

"I'll tell you what now," she said, marching straight up to him and poking him hard in the chest with her finger. "How come you've landed yourself in detention for five o'clock on Friday?"

"What?" said Harry. "Why… oh yeah, Keeper tryouts!"

"Now he remembers!" snarled Angelina. "Didn't I tell you I wanted to do a tryout with the whole team, and find someone who fitted in with everyone! Didn't I tell you I'd booked the Quidditch pitch specially? And now you've decided you're not going to be there!"

"I didn't decide not to be there!" said Harry, stung by the injustice of these words. "I got detention from that Umbridge woman, just because I told her the truth about You-Know-Who."

"Well, you can just go straight to her and ask her to let you off on Friday," said Angelina fiercely, "and I don't care how you do it. Tell her You-Know-Who's a figment of your imagination if you like, just make sure you're there!"

She turned on her heel and stormed away.

"You know what?" Harry said to Ron and Hermione as they entered the Great Hall. "I think we'd better check with Puddlemere United whether Oliver Wood's been killed during a training session, because Angelina seems to be channeling his spirit."

"What d'you reckon are the odds of Umbridge letting you off on Friday?" said Ron skeptically, as they sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Less than zero," said Harry glumly, tipping lamb chops on to his plate and starting to eat. "Better try, though, hadn't I? I'll offer to do two more detentions or something, I dunno…" He swallowed a mouthful of potato and added, "I hope she doesn't keep me too long this evening. You realize we've got to write three essays, practice Vanishing Spells for McGonagall, work out a counter-charm for Flitwick, finish the Bowtruckle drawing and start that stupid dream diary for Trelawney?"

Ron moaned and for some reason glanced up at the ceiling.

"And it looks like it's going to rain."

Echizen smiled to him.

"What's that got to do with our homework?" said Hermione, her eyebrows raised.

"Nothing," said Ron at once, his ears reddening.

"What's Professor McGonagall said for you all?", Asked Ron.

"Just to babysit these eleven years old immature bunch", Hitsugaya nodded.

"I'm twelve", Echizen pouted.

"By the way, where's our silver sweethtooth?", asked Alluka.

"Go to Hogsmead", Hitsugaya mumbled while he was eating his kidney pie.

"Wow", Harry and Ron exclaimed.

"He's amazing for first year", added Fred.

"Thanks for yesterday", George whispered to Alluka.

"No Problem".

"Where is he? It's five to five", Harry shouted.

"I'm here", Killua said, he carried ten Sugar Quills.

"Come on Harry", he waved and they left Hermione and Ron, their jaw dropped.

They knocked on the door she called, "Come in," in a sugary voice. They entered cautiously, looking around.

Harry had known this office under three of its previous occupants.

In the days when Gilderoy Lockhart had lived here it had been plastered in beaming portraits of himself. When Lupin had occupied it, it was likely you would meet some fascinating Dark creature in a cage or tank if you came to call. In the impostor Moody's days it had been packed with various instruments and artifacts for the detection of wrong doing and concealment.

Now, however, it looked totally unrecognizable. The surfaces had all been draped in lacy covers and cloths. There were several vases full of dried flowers, each one residing on its own doily, and on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large Technicolor kitten wearing a different bow around its neck. These were so foul that Harry stared at them, transfixed, until Professor Umbridge spoke again.

"Good evening, Mr. Potter, Mr. Zoldyck."

Harry started and looked around. He had not noticed her at first because she was wearing a luridly flowered set of robes that blended only too well with the tablecloth on the desk behind her.

"Evening, Professor Umbridge," Harry said stiffly.

"Evening, Professor", said Killua.

"Well, sit down," she said, pointing towards a small table draped in lace beside which she had drawn up two straight-backed chairs. Two pieces of blank parchments lay on the table, apparently waiting for them.

"Er," said Harry, without moving. "Professor Umbridge. Er - before we start, I - I wanted to ask you a… a favor."

Her bulging eyes narrowed.

"Oh, yes?"

"Well, I'm… I'm in the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o'clock on Friday and I was - was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it - do it another night… instead…"

He knew long before he reached the end of his sentence that it was no good.

"Oh, no," said Umbridge, smiling so widely that she looked as though she had just swallowed a particularly juicy fly. "Oh, no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you."

Harry felt the blood surge to his head and heard a thumping noise in his ears. So he told 'evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories', did he?

She was watching him with her head slightly to one side, still smiling widely, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking and was waiting to see whether he would start shouting again. With a massive effort, Harry looked away from her, dropped his schoolbag beside the straight-backed chair and sat down.

"There," said Umbridge sweetly, "we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Potter, Mr. Zoldyck. No, not with your quill," she added, as Harry bent down to open his bag. "You're going to be using rather special ones of mine. Here you are."

She handed them two long, thin black quills with an unusually sharp point.

"I want you to write, I must not tell lies," she told him softly.

"How many times?" Harry asked, with a creditable imitation of politeness.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go."

She moved over to her desk, sat down and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking. Harry raised the sharp black quill, then realized what was missing.

"You haven't given me any ink," he said.

"Oh, you won't need ink," said Professor Umbridge, with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice.

Harry placed the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must not tell lies.

He let out a gasp of pain. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of Harry's right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel - yet even as he stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly redder than before but quite smooth.

Harry looked round at Umbridge. She was watching him, her wide, toadlike mouth stretched in a smile.

"Yes?"

"Nothing," said Harry quietly.

He looked back at the parchment, placed the quill on it once more, wrote I must not tell lies, and felt the searing pain on the back of his hand for a second time; once again, the words had been cut into his skin; once again, they healed over seconds later.

And on it went. Again and again Harry wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realize was not ink, but his own blood. And, again and again, the words were cut into the back of his hand, healed, and reappeared the next time he set quill to parchment.

He almost forgot Killua was there too. He turned his eyes to The Elder Zoldyck's hand.

It was bleeding badly, while Killua chomped his candies. He moved his mouth so Harry could read it.

"I-am-bored", he said.

"Professor, would you please give me another quill?", asked Killua.

"Why do you need it, dear?", Umbridge turned her eyes to Killua, saw his bored expression. The fact that his hand was already bleeding, cutting deeply, Killua just said another sentences.

"I'm ambidextrous, Professor", he explained", please?", he added.

Harry moved his mouth.

Are-you-mental-?

"I-am-bored, he simply replied.

Her bulgy eyes widened.

"Of course dear", he gave him another quill.

Darkness fell outside Umbridge's window. Harry did not ask when he would be allowed to stop.

He did not even check his watch. He knew she was watching him for signs of weakness and he was not going to show any, not even if he had to sit there all night, cutting open his own hand with this quill…

"Come here," she said, after what seemed hours.

He stood up. His hand was stinging painfully. When he looked down at it he saw that the cut had healed, but that the skin there was red raw.

"Hand," she said.

He extended it. She took it in her own. Harry repressed a shudder as she touched him with her thick, stubby fingers on which she wore a number of ugly old rings.

"Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet," she said, smiling. "Well, we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we? Don't wait for Mr. Zoldyck, I have a word with him. You may go"

Harry left her office without a word.

Why Killua asked for another quill. Is he really mental?

The school was quite deserted; it was surely past midnight.

He walked slowly up the corridor, then, when he had turned the corner and was sure she would not hear him, broke into a run.

He had not had time to practice Vanishing Spells, had not written a single dream in his dream diary and had not finished the drawing of the Bowtruckle, nor had he written his essays. He skipped breakfast next morning to scribble down a couple of made-up dreams for Divination, their first lesson, and was surprised to find a disheveled Ron keeping him company.

"How come you didn't do it last night?" Harry asked, as Ron stared wildly around the common room for inspiration. Ron, who had been fast asleep when Harry got back to the dormitory, muttered something about "doing other stuff", bent low over his parchment and scrawled a few words.

"Killua, are you alright?", he asked Killua while the first year passed.

"I'm fine", he smiled and waved to him.

"That'll have to do," Harry said, slamming the diary shut. "I've said I dreamed I was buying a new pair of shoes, she can't make anything weird out of that, can she?"

They hurried off to North Tower together.

"How was detention with Umbridge, anyway? What did she make you do?"

Harry hesitated for a fraction of a second, then said, "Lines."

"That's not too bad, then, eh?" said Ron.

"Nope," said Harry.

"Hey - I forgot - did she let you off for Friday?"

"No," said Harry.

Ron groaned sympathetically.

It was another bad day for Harry; he was one of the worst in Transfiguration, not having practiced Vanishing Spells at all. He had to give up his lunch hour to complete the picture of the Bowtruckle and, meanwhile, Professors McGonagall, Grubbly-Plank and Sinistra gave them yet more homework, which he had no prospect of finishing that evening because of his second detention with Umbridge. To cap it all, Angelina Johnson tracked him down at dinner again and, on learning that he would not be able to attend Friday's Keeper tryouts, told him she was not at all impressed by his attitude and that she expected players who wished to remain on the team to put training before their other commitments.

"I'm in detention!" Harry yelled after her as she talked away. "D'you think I'd rather be stuck in a room with that old toad or playing Quidditch?"

"At least it's only lines," said Hermione consolingly, as Harry sank back on to his bench and looked down at his steak and kidney pie, which he no longer fancied very much. "It's not as if it's a dreadful punishment, really…"

Harry opened his mouth, closed it again and nodded. He was not really sure why he was not telling Ron and Hermione exactly what was happening in Umbridge's room: he only knew that he did not want to see their looks of horror; that would make the whole thing seem worse and therefore more difficult to face. He also felt dimly that this was between himself and Umbridge, a private battle of wills, and he was not going to give her the satisfaction of hearing that he had complained about it.

"I can't believe how much homework we've got," said Ron miserably.

"Well, why didn't you do any last night?" Hermione asked him. "Where were you, anyway?"

"I was… I fancied a walk," said Ron shiftily.

Harry had the distinct impression that he was not alone in concealing things at the moment.

The second detention was just as bad as the previous one. The skin on the back of Harry's hand became irritated more quickly now and was soon red and inflamed. Harry thought it unlikely that it would keep healing as effectively for long. Soon the cut would remain etched into his hand and Umbridge would, perhaps, be satisfied. He let no gasp of pain escape him, however, and from the moment of entering the room to the moment of his dismissal, again past midnight, he said nothing but "good evening" and "goodnight."

He walked, back, he saw Killua ran to the Hospital Wings

He decided not to follow him. Killua's hands were worse now, he needed go to Madame Pomfrey or he won't be able to attend his class with two bleeding hands.

His homework situation, however, was now desperate, and when he returned to the Gryffindor common room he did not, though exhausted, go to bed, but opened his books and began Snape's moonstone essay. It was half past two by the time he had finished it. He knew he had done a poor job, but there was no help for it; unless he had something to give in he would be in detention with Snape next. He then dashed off answers to the questions Professor McGonagall had set them, cobbled together something on the proper handling of Bowtruckles for Professor Grubbly- Plank, and staggered up to bed, where he fell fully clothed on top of the covers and fell asleep immediately.

Thursday passed in a haze of tiredness. Ron seemed very sleepy too, though Harry could not see why he should be. Harry's third detention passed in the same way as the previous two, except that after two hours the words I must not tell lies did not fade from the back of Harry's hand, but remained scratched there, oozing droplets of blood. The pause in the pointed quill's scratching made Professor Umbridge look up.

"Ah," she said softly, moving around her desk to examine his hand herself. "Good. That ought to serve as a reminder to you, oughtn't it? You may leave for tonight."

"Do I still have to come back tomorrow?" said Harry picking up his schoolbag with his left hand rather than his smarting right one.

"Oh yes. You two," said Professor Umbridge, smiling as widely as before. "Yes, I think we can etch the message a little deeper with another evening's work."

Harry had never before considered the possibility that there might be another teacher in the world he hated more than Snape, but as he walked back towards Gryffindor Tower he had to admit he had found a strong contender. She's evil, he thought, as he climbed a staircase to the seventh floor, she's an evil, twisted, mad old-

He saw Killua walked near to him. He didn't go to Hospital Wing.

"Are you alright?", Harry asked.

"Yes. Madame Pomfrey keeps asking me, I won't go there again", he said simply. His hands were worse than Harry.

"Ron?", said Killua.

They had reached the top of the stairs, turned right and almost walked into Ron, who was lurking behind a statue of Lachlan the Lanky, clutching his broomstick. He gave a great leap of surprise when he saw Harry and Killua, and attempted to hide his new Cleansweep Eleven behind his back.

"What are you doing?"

"Er - nothing. What are you doing?"

They frowned at him.

"Come on, you can tell us! What are you hiding here for?"

"I'm - I'm hiding from Fred and George, if you must know," said Ron. "They just went past with a bunch of first-years, I bet they're testing stuff on them again. I mean, they can't do it in the common room now, can they, not with Hermione there."

He was talking in a very fast, feverish way.

"But what have you got your broom for, you haven't been flying, have you?" Harry asked.

"I - well - well, okay, I'll tell you two, but don't laugh, all right?" Ron said defensively, turning redder with every second. "I - I thought I'd try out for Gryffindor Keeper now I've got a decent broom. There. Go on. Laugh."

"I'm not laughing," said Harry. Ron blinked. "It's a brilliant idea! It'd be really cool if you got on the team! I've never seen you play Keeper, are you good?"

"I'm not bad," said Ron, who looked immensely relieved at Harry's reaction. "Charlie, Fred and George always made me Keep for them when they were training during the holidays."

"My flying lesson's tomorrow", Killua added.

"Umbridge destroys my perfect day", he groaned.

They smiled at him symphatetically.

"So you've been practicing tonight?"

"Every evening since Tuesday… just on my own, though. I've been trying to bewitch Quaffles to fly at me, but it hasn't been easy and I don't know how much use it'll be." Ron looked nervous and anxious. "Fred and George are going to laugh themselves stupid when I turn up for the tryouts. They haven't stopped taking the mickey out of me since I got made a prefect."

"I wish I was going to be there," said Harry bitterly, as they set off together towards the common room.

"You can ask Ryoma. He's going to explode because he didn't do any sport since he arrived", added Killua, he passed them.

"Yeah, so do - Harry, what's that on the back of your hand?"

Harry, who had just scratched his nose with his free right hand, tried to hide it, but had as much success as Ron with his Cleansweep.

"It's just a cut - it's nothing - it's -"

But Ron had grabbed Harry's forearm and pulled the back of Harry's hand up level with his eyes. There was a pause, during which he stared at the words carved into the skin, then, looking sick, he released Harry.

"I thought you said she was just giving you lines?"

Harry hesitated, but after all, Ron had been honest with him, so he told Ron the truth about the hours he had been spending in Umbridge's office.

"The old hag!" Ron said in a revolted whisper as they came to a halt in front of the Fat Lady, who was dozing peacefully with her head against her frame. "She's sick! Go to McGonagall, say something!"

"No," said Harry at once. "I'm not giving her the satisfaction of knowing she's got to me."

"Got to you? You can't let her get away with this!"

"I don't know how much power McGonagall's got over her," said Harry.

"Dumbledore, then, tell Dumbledore!"

"No," said Harry flatly.

"Why not?"

"He's got enough on his mind," said Harry, but that was not the true reason. He was not going to go to Dumbledore for help when Dumbledore had not spoken to him once since June.

"Well, I reckon you should -" Ron began, but he was interrupted by the Fat Lady, who had been watching them sleepily and now burst out, "Are you going to give me the password or will I have to stay awake all night waiting for you to finish your conversation?"

They climbed and arrived at the common room.

"Blood", Ron said while he pointed the blood, it was going towards Boys Dorm.

"Killua, his hands were worse than mine", they walked.

"I've just worried he was going to unconscious or something, his hand was bleeding since the first detention"

"Do we have to wake him up and accompany him to Madame Pomfrey?", asked Ron.

Harry shrugged his shoulder.

"Nope, he said to me he's alright", as they reached their beds.

Friday dawned sullen and sodden as the rest of the week. Though Harry automatically glanced towards the staff table when he entered the Great Hall, it was without any real hope of seeing Hagrid, and he turned his mind immediately to his more pressing problems, such as the mountainous pile of homework he had to do and the prospect of yet another detention with Umbridge.

Two things sustained Harry that day. One was the thought that it was almost the weekend; the other was that, dreadful though his final detention with Umbridge was sure to be, he had a distant view of the Quidditch pitch from her window and might, with luck, be able to see something of Ron's tryout. These were rather feeble rays of light, it was true, but Harry was grateful for anything that might lighten his present darkness; he had never had a worse first week of term at Hogwarts.

At five o'clock that evening he and Killua knocked on Professor Umbridge's office door for what they sincerely hoped would be the final time, and was told to enter. The blank parchments lay ready for them on the lace-covered table, three pointed black quills beside it.

"You know what to do, Mr. Potter, Mr. Zoldyck," said Umbridge, smiling sweetly at him.

Harry picked up the quill and glanced through the window. If he just shifted his chair an inch or so to the right… on the pretext of shifting himself closer to the table, he managed it. He now had a distant view of the Gryffindor Quidditch team soaring up and down the pitch, while half a dozen black figures stood at the foot of the three high goalposts, apparently awaiting their turn to Keep. It was impossible to tell which one was Ron at this distance.

I must not tell lies, Harry wrote. The cut in the back of his right hand opened and began to bleed afresh.

I must not tell lies. The cut dug deeper, stinging and smarting.

I must not tell lies. Blood trickled down his wrist.

He chanced another glance out of the window. Whoever was defending the goalposts now was doing a very poor job indeed. Katie Bell scored twice in the few seconds Harry dared to watch.

Hoping very much that the Keeper wasn't Ron, he dropped his eyes back to the parchment shining with blood.

I must not tell lies.

I must not tell lies.

He looked up whenever he thought he could risk it; when he could hear the scratching of Umbridge's quill or the opening of a desk drawer. The third person to try out was pretty good, the fourth was terrible, the fifth dodged a Bludger exceptionally well but then fumbled an easy save.

The sky was darkening, and Harry doubted he would be able to see the sixth and seventh people at all.

I must not tell lies.

I must not tell lies.

The parchment was now dotted with drops of blood from the back of his hand, which was searing with pain. When he next looked up, night had fallen and the Quidditch pitch was no longer visible.

"Let's see if you've gotten the message yet, shall we?" said Umbridges soft voice half an hour later. She moved towards them, stretching out her short ringed fingers for his arm. And then, as she took hold of him to examine the words now cut into his skin, pain seared, not across the back of his hand, but across the scar on his forehead. At the same time, he had a most peculiar sensation somewhere around his midriff.

He wrenched his arm out of her grip and leapt to his feet, staring at her. She looked back at him, a smile stretching her wide, slack mouth.

"Yes, it hurts, doesn't it?" she said softly.

He did not answer. His heart was thumping very hard and fast. Was she talking about his hand or did she know what he had just felt in his forehead?

"No", said Killua.

"Well, I think I've made my point, Mr. Potter. You may go. Mr. Zoldyck, another week of detention is waiting for you", she said softly.

He caught up his schoolbag and left the room as quickly as he could, forgetting Killua behind.

Stay calm, he told himself, as he sprinted up the stairs. Stay calm, it doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means…

"Mimbulus mimbletonia!" he gasped at the Fat Lady, who swung forwards once more.

A roar of sound greeted him. Ron came running towards him, beaming all over his face and slopping Butterbeer down his front from the goblet he was clutching.

"Harry, I did it, I'm in, I'm Keeper!"

"What? Oh - brilliant!" said Harry, trying to smile naturally, while his heart continued to race and his hand throbbed and bled.

"Have a Butterbeer." Ron pressed a bottle on him. "I can't believe it - where's Hermione gone?"

"She's there," said Fred, who was also swigging Butterbeer, and pointed to an armchair by the fire. Hermione was dozing in it, her drink tipping precariously in her hand.

"Well, she said she was pleased when I told her," said Ron, looking slightly put out.

"Let her sleep," said George hastily. It was a few moments before Harry noticed that several of the first-years gathered around them bore unmistakable signs of recent nosebleeds.

"Come here, Ron, and see if Oliver's old robes fit you," called Katie Bell, "we can take off his name and put yours on instead…"

As Ron moved away, Angelina came striding up to Harry.

"Sorry I was a bit short with you earlier, Potter," she said abruptly. "It's stressful this managing lark, you know, I'm starting to think I was a bit hard on Wood sometimes." She was watching Ron over the rim of her goblet with a slight frown on her face.

"Look, I know he's your best mate, but he's not fabulous," she said bluntly. "I think with a bit of training he'll be all right, though. He comes from a family of good Quidditch players. I'm banking on him turning out to have a bit more talent than he showed today, to be honest. Vicky Frobisher and Geoffrey Hooper both flew better this evening, but Hoopers a real whiner, he's always moaning about something or other, and Vicky's involved in all sorts of societies. She admitted herself that if training clashed with her Charms Club she'd put Charms first. Anyway, we're having a practice session at two o'clock tomorrow, so just make sure you're there this time. And do me a favor and help Ron as much as you can, okay?"

He nodded, and Angelina strolled back to Alicia Spinnet. Harry moved over to sit next to Hermione, who awoke with a jerk as he put down his bag.

"Oh, Harry, it's you… good about Ron, isn't it?" she said blearily. "I'm just so-so - so tired," she yawned. "I was up until one o'clock making more hat s. They're disappearing like mad!"

And sure enough, now that he looked, Harry saw that there were woolly hats concealed all around the room where unwary elves might accidentally pick them up.

"Great," said Harry distractedly; if he did not tell somebody soon, he would burst. "Listen, Hermione, I was just up in Umbridge's office and she touched my arm."

Hermione listened closely. When Harry had finished, she said slowly "You're worried You- Know-Who's controlling her like he controlled Quirrell?"

"Well," said Harry, dropping his voice, "it's a possibility, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," said Hermione, though she sounded unconvinced. "But I don't think he can be possessing her the way he possessed Quirrell,

I mean, he's properly alive again now, isn't he, he's got his own body, he wouldn't need to share someone else's. He could have her under the Imperius Curse, I suppose…"

Harry watched Fred, George and Lee Jordan juggling empty Butterbeer bottles for a moment.

Then Hermione said, "But last year your scar hurt when nobody was touching you, and didn't Dumbledore say it had to do with what You-Know-Who was feeling at the time?

I mean, maybe this hasn't got anything to do with Umbridge at all, maybe it's just coincidence it happened while you were with her?"

"She's evil," said Harry flatly. "Twisted."

"She's horrible, yes, but… Harry, I think you ought to tell Dumbledore your scar hurt."

It was the second time in two days he had been advised to go to Dumbledore and his answer to Hermione was just the same as his answer to Ron.

"I'm not bothering him with this. Like you just said, its not a big deal. It's been hurting on and off all summer - it was just a bit worse tonight, that's all -"

"Harry, I'm sure Dumbledore would want to be bothered by this -"

"Yeah," said Harry, before he could stop himself, "that's the only bit of me Dumbledore cares about, isn't it, my scar?"

"Don't say that, it's not true!"

"I think I'll write and tell Sirius about it, see what he thinks -"

"Harry, you can't put something like that in a letter!" said Hermione, looking alarmed. "Don't you remember, Moody told us to be careful what we put in writing! We just can't guarantee owls aren't being intercepted any more!"

"All right, all right, I won't tell him, then!" said Harry irritably. He got to his feet. "I'm going to bed. Tell Ron for me, will you?"

"Oh no," said Hermione, looking relieved,

"If you're going that means I can go too, without being rude. I'm absolutely exhausted and I want to make some more hats tomorrow. Listen, you can help me if you like, it's quite fun, I'm getting better, I can do patterns and bobbles and all sorts of things now."

Harry looked into her face, which was shining with glee, and tried to look as though he was vaguely tempted by this offer.

"WHAT? I'M ABSOLUTELY FINE, PROFESSOR", they heard a scream from outside. The painting swung inside, they saw Professor McGonagall and Killua, climbed into common room.

"Potter, let me see your hand", professor McGonagall grabbed his hand. All Griffyndors stood up in silence.

McGonagall examined his hand.

"I'm going to bed", Killua said, but Hermione grabbed his right hand, she was too fast for him.

"It's horrible", then she grabbed his left hands.

"Thanks Miss Granger", added McGonagall.

"Hospital Wings, you two! No need to talk!", she said firmly. Harry followed her when she dragged Killua out of the common room.

* * *

DONE! YAY! This time is Harry's PoV.

Just give me review, so I can do it better.

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	6. Few Minutes Later

**Hello, guys! It takes me a long time to update! Finally, this is the next chapter! Hope you like it!**

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6. Few Minutes Later

Professor McGonagall stood up, while two boys sat down and examined by Madame Pomfrey.

"How do you feel now?", asked her.

"Great", Killua mumbled

Madame Pomfrey healed their injury in a second, Harry and Killua were stepping out of the hospital wing before they heard Professor McGonagall walked towards them.

"Zoldyck, Professor Dumbledore wishes to talk with you now. Potter, you may go", said her as she dissapeared behind the hospital wing's door.

"Someone tried to tell me about the headmaster before", Killua grumbled before he went to another corridor, "Does he really hate candy?", he shouted, and then ran.

Harry couldn't help himself, chuckling.

He walked and climbed the portrait hole, only to saw Ron waited for him.

"How d'you feel?", asked Ron nervously.

"Fine. Listen Ron, McGo-"

"Harry, where's Killua?", Hermione cut his sentence, her face was full of horror.

"He's going to meet Dumbledore. Why? What happen?", asked him.

"Something bad, Boys Dorm", she dragged them.

Then Harry saw, something like a bundle of pink, red liquid covered almost all surface of it. His face filled with horror when he saw Alluka Zoldyck, his hands covered with the red liquid. Was that blood?

Hitsugaya, in the other hand, was ready to draw something which Harry could only guess, sword.

"STOP IT", Eyes yelled.

"But this evil-bitch, what she'd done to my brother?", Alluka inquired.

Oh, crap! Brother complex wasn't Hitsugaya's specialist, especially with assassin brother!

"Hell no, I don't see a reason why you must kill her?", Echizen added.

"You WHAT?", Hermione snapped.

"Bring her to Madame Pomfrey, she's still breathing", said Ron, after he examined her.

Nobody wanted to carry the half-toad woman, so Hitsugaya did this horrible job. Hermione protested to her best friends about that and they quite surprised with the white-haired boy's superb power.

Alluka, stayed in the middle of the row, like a prisoner.

* * *

Harry knocked the door, and Professor McGonagall jumped when she saw Hitsugaya carried an unconscious Umbridge in his back.

"What happened?", asked her, sounded angry while Madame Pomfrey examined the toad woman.

Her students didn't answer it, knowing that if they answer it straightly, she would be mad.

"Sit down"

They sat down, and Hermione, who was the wise one, told her everything and her eyes were full of horror.

"It's true, she's horrible, but as Mr. Echizen had said, you have no reason against her, especially in this way", said her.

"Kill someone doesn't solve your problem. It's what I've learnt from Naruto", added Eyes, while he showed his manga to them.

"Kill?", asked Harry curiously, Ron looking terrified.

Eyes smirked.

"Never heard anything like this before then, I guess?"

"It's my family matter, tradition", answered Alluka coolly.

Harry's eyes widened while Hermione raised one of her eyebrows.

"She's alright", said Madame Pomfrey, "Just shocked"

"About the bleeding?", asked McGonagall.

"Ah, It's just a mixed up cranberry Juice with simple spell", she smiled.

Alluka chuckled, while Eyes and Echizen must bit their tongue to prevent them for laughing.

"Cranberry juice?", McGonagall turned her eyes to them.

"She will be alright but she needs few days to recover", said Madame Pomfrey.

"Let's say, someone will teach you in Defense in the Dark Arts in your next lesson", added Professor McGonagall.

Hermione almost failed to prevent her smile. Hitsugaya nodded when he saw Harry's gratitude face.

* * *

Headmaster office

Knock, knock. Killua knocked the door before he entered. He almost clapped happily before, when the gargoyle responded the first password he had tried.

"Come in, Mr. Zoldyck", Dumbledore greeted him. He wore his night blue cloak, with golden stars embroidery.

"Professor"

"Sit down please", Dumbledore waved his wand while a set of armchairs appeared, "I'll have a conversation with you. Oh, not about your hands", he added as he saw Killua's dark expression.

Suddenly, a golden-red bird flew and landed on Killua's shoulder. He strokes the bird.

"Fawkes already likes you", Dumbledore said in amusement tone.

"It's about your family"

"Oh, Shit", he cursed, while Dumbledore chuckled.

"I got a letter from your mother. She wishes that you and your brothers will come home in the Christmas"

"If I refuse it, what will she do?", Killua muttered, knowing his mother would do something horrified.

"She will turn the whole school into dust, including the living being", Dumbledore talked pleasantly, like they were talking about the weather today.

"Don't worry, . If you prefer to stay, I'll send your answer to your mother", added Dumbledore.

May be Dumbledore was really mental, Killua thought. Did this man know the way his family spend the Christmas holiday? Ah, he just realized how silly he was. Of course this man knew. He was an Albus Dumbledore after all.

"OK. I will go. And I will send the answer myself", answered Killua.

"A reunion?", asked the headmaster.

"Yes", _may be, _he added in his heart, smirked. May be spending a holiday with his family wouldn't that bad.

* * *

Killua just entered the common room when Alluka burst out of laughing.

"What's so funny?", asked him, joining the whole group.

"Nothing. What does he tell you/", asked him.

"Mom wants us to come home in Christmas", replied him.

'She WHAT?", Alluka yelled.

"Sh sh sh", Hermione silenced him.

"Your mother wants you to come home in holidays. It's great", added her.

"It's good for him, exactly", Killua smirked, looking at his brother.

"Hey", Alluka punched him.

"I'll come with you", Echizn suddenly said.

"You won't come home?", asked Eyes.

"Hell no! Baka Oyaji is in Japan. Okaasan is in America, they are too far", answered him.

Alluka looked relieved.

"By the way, why you all are looking happy?", asked Killua, pointed their faces.

"Your brother sent that toad-woman to hell", answered Echizen," But still mada mada dane", added him.

Killua was laughing with others, just before he realized something and grabbed his brother's arm.

"You WHAT?", he shouted.

"Relax, Brother. I just put her in Hell of Cranberry"

"I'm serious", he pouted.

"I'm tworious, then", his brother replied.

"It's still mada mada dane though. I can do better. I'll cover her with tennis balls all over her body with permanent sticking charm"

"It's inspiring me, though it comes from an arrogant toerag, like you", Eyes added.

"It's late", Echizen saw the clock.

"And we need sleep", he dragged his friends.

"Come on, we need it too", Ron and Harry followed them, Hermione went to Girls Dorm.

* * *

**Short chapter! Well, I'm pretty busy with school, so I can't promise for the next chapter soon! But I will make sure the next chapter will be longer, sorry for my grammar skill.**

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	7. Watch Out

**Long time no see you! But school is sure killing me slowly! Here the next chapter!**

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**7. Watch Out!**

_**Echizen's PoV**_

_Dear Baka Oyaji!_

_Ogenki desu ka? What about Karupin? How's Mom?_

_I'm FINE with F-I-N-E, all capital letters. And I'm a Gryffindor, so stop squealing._

_This place is ...well, without tennis any way, you can call it 'Suck'. Just few days ago I learned how to fly. It was fun although not as much as tennis, of course._

_About lessons? Well, transfiguration is cool, charm is charming as you said. Potion is wonderful, like chemistry. History of Magic is...b-, you know it well. Better sleeping in that class than listening to The-Most-Predictable-Ghost in Hogwarts.__ Herbology isn't creepy as you described before. __ Defense again The Dark Arts, seriously...that class needs to be fixed up. The Professor is a Toad, and she is horibble. We haven't learn anything except for acting like a bunch of kindergarten who greets their teacher 'Good Morning, Professor Umbridge'!_

_So, I'm thinking of spending the Christmas Holiday in my Friends' House! Both of them are brothers and they live in Mount Kururu. Is that alright?_

_It's all for now. FOR NOW! Stop Reading your Stupid Magazines, or I send a letter for Mom. _

_Send my Love for Mom (Just call her using a telephone you shitty old man!)_

_Tell all my friends that I'm doing well here._

_Very Creative Ways,_

_Your Beloved Son_

_Echizen Ryoma_

Ryoma was walking over his dorm, heard the flipping page from Eyes's direction, probably reading his manga, Killua and Alluka reading Hogwarts, A History, and Hitsugaya writing his report.

"What are you doing, Echizen?", he saw the white-haired boy who didn't even turn his eyes over his report.

"Will send letter to my stupid old man", he muttered.

"Then go with Potter-boy. He also writes letter in common room", he replied.

"How d'you know?"

Hitsugaya just shrugged his shoulders.

"Shinigami and their awesome reiatsu's awareness" , Eyes answered it for him.

"What are you doing in early morning?"

"Writing report, of course. What d'you expect I will do?"

"Not you, Shinigami-san", he pointed three other boys.

"Reading", they replied in unison.

"Yeah, well. Whatever", he went out.

_**Harry's PoV**_

Harry was first to wake up in his dormitory next morning. He lay for a moment watching dust swirl in the ray of sunlight coming through the gap in his four‐posters hangings, and savoured the thought that it was Saturday. The first week of term seemed to have dragged on for ever, like one gigantic History of Magic lesson.

Judging by the sleepy silence and the freshly minted look of that beam of sunlight, it was just after daybreak. He pulled open the curtains around his bed, got up and started to dress. The only sound apart from the distant twittering of birds was the slow, deep breathing of his fellow Gryffindors. He opened his schoolbag carefully, pulled out parchment and quill and headed out of the dormitory for the common room.

Making straight for his favourite squashy old armchair beside the now extinct fire, Harry settled himself down comfortably and unrolled his parchment while looking around the room. The detritus of crumpled‐up bits of parchment, old Gobstones, empty ingredient jars and sweet wrappers that usually covered the common room at the end of each day was gone, as were all Hermioneʹs elf hats. Wondering vaguely how many elves had now been set free whether they wanted to be or not, Harry uncorked his ink bottle, dipped his quill into it, then held it suspended an inch above the smooth yellowish surface of his parchment, thinking hard… but after a minute or so he found himself staring into the empty grate, at a complete loss for what to say.

He could now appreciate how hard it had been for Ron and Hermione to write him letters over the summer. How was he supposed to tell Sirius everything that had happened over the past week and pose all the questions he was burning to ask without giving potential letter‐thieves a lot of information he did not want them to have?

He sat quite motionless for a while, gazing into the fireplace,: then, finally coming to a decision, he dipped his quill into the ink bottle once more and set it resolutely on the parchment.

_Dear Snuffles,_

_Hope you're OK, the first week back here has been terrible, I'm really_

_glad it's the weekend._

_We've got a new Defence Against __the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge._

_We're all missing __our biggest friend, we hope heʹll be back soon._

_Please write back quickly._

_Best,_

_Harr__y_

Harry reread the letter several times, trying to see it from the point of view of an outsider. He could not see how they would know what he was talking about ‐ or who he was talking to ‐ just from reading this letter. He did hope Sirius would pick up the hint about Hagrid and tell them when he might be back. Harry did not want to ask directly in case it drew too much attention to what Hagrid might be up to while he was not at Hogwarts.

Considering it was a very short letter, it had taken a long time to write; sunlight had crept halfway across the room while he had been working on it and he could now hear distant sounds of movement from the dormitories above.

"Potter-senpai", he heard a voice calling him while he just sealed his letter.

He saw two golden eyes threw a hard look on him. It looked like Echizen will criticize his appearance. But the boy just blinked and said.

"You will send a letter"

Harry nodded.

"We can go to the Owlery together", he suggested, led Harry to climb the portrait hole.

_"I would not go that way if I were you," said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting disconcertingly through a wall just ahead of them as they walked down the passage. "Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor."_

"Does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the persons head?" asked Harry. Echizen's face looked amused.

"Funnily enough, it _does,"said Nearly Headless Nick in a bored voice. "Subtlety has never been Peeves's strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron… he might be able to put a stop to it… see you, Harry, Ryoma_

"Yeah, bye," said them and instead of turning right, the two turned left, taking a longer but safer route up to the Owlery. Harry's spirits rose as he walked past window after window showing brilliantly blue sky; he had training later, he would be back on the Quidditch pitch at last.

Something brushed his ankles. He looked down and saw the caretaker's skeletal grey cat, Mrs Norns, slinking past him. She turned lamplike yellow eyes on him for a moment before disappearing behind a statue of Wilfred the Wistful.

"I'm not doing anything wrong," Harry called after her. She had the unmistakeable air of a cat that was ofi to report to her boss, yet Harry could not see why; he was perfectly entitled to walk up to the Owlery on a Saturday morning.

The sun was high in the sky now and when Harry entered the Owlery the glassless windows dazzled his eyes; thick silvery beams of sunlight crisscrossed the circular room in which hundreds of owls nestled on rafters, a little restless in the early‐morning light, some clearly just returned from hunting. The straw‐covered floor crunched a little as he stepped across tiny animal bones, craning his neck for a sight of Hedwig.

"There you are," he said, spotting her somewhere near the very top of the vaulted ceiling. "Get down here, I've got a letter for you.ʺ

With a low hoot she stretched her great white wings and soared down on to his shoulder.

"Right, I know this says Snuffles on the outside," he told her, giving her the letter to clasp in her beak and, without knowing exactly why, whispering, "but it's for Sirius, OK?"

She blinked her amber eyes once and he took that to mean that she understood.

"Safe flight, then," said Harry and he carried her to one of the windows; with a moment's pressure on his arm, Hedwig took off into the blindingly bright sky. He watched her until she became a tiny black speck and vanished, then switched his gaze to Hagridʹs hut, clearly visible from this window, and just as clearly uninhabited, the chimney smokeless, the curtains drawn.

"A very kind-friendly cat", Harry heard Ryoma's voice and turned back, only saw a horror.

There was Echizen Ryoma, touching Mrs. Norris fur. And he smiled sweetly while saying.

"Karupin will love you a second after he sees you"

And then he released the caretaker's cat, searched for the school's owl, attached his letter to the owl's leg.

The Owlery door opened behind him. Harry leapt in shock and, turning quickly, saw Cho Chang holding a letter and a parcel in her hands. Ryoma had been wise enough not to disturb them.

"Hi," said Harry automatically.

"Oh… hi," she said breathlessly. "I didn't think anyone would be up here this early… I only remembered five minutes ago, it's my mum's birthday."

She held up the parcel.

"Right," said Harry. His brain seemed to have jammed. He wanted to say something funny and interesting, but the memory of that terrible winged horse was fresh in his mind.

"Nice day," he said, gesturing to the windows. His insides seemed to shrivel with embarrassment. The weather. He was talking about the _weather…_

"Yeah," said Cho, looking around for a suitable owl. "Good Quidditch conditions. 1 haven't been out all week, have you?"

"No," said Harry.

Cho had selected one of the school barn owls. She coaxed it down on to her arm where it held out an obliging leg so that she could attach the parcel.

"Hey, has Gryffindor got a new Keeper yet?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Harry. "It's my friend Ron Weasley, d'you know him?"

"The Tornados‐hater?" said Cho rather coolly. "Is he any good?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "I think so. I didn't see his tryout, though, I was in detention."

Cho looked up, the parcel only half‐attached to the owl's legs.

"That Umbridge woman's foul," she said in a low voice. "Putting you in detention just because you told the truth about how ‐ how ‐ how he died. Everyone heard about it, it was all over the school. You were really brave standing up to her like that."

Harry's insides re‐inflated so rapidly he felt as though he might actually float a few inches off the dropping‐strewn floor. Who cared about a stupid flying horse; Cho thought he had been really brave. For a moment, he considered accidentally‐on‐purpose showing her his cut hand as he helped her tie her parcel on to her owl… but the very instant this thrilling thought occurred, the Owlery door opened again.

Filch the caretaker came wheezing into the room. There were purple patches on his sunken, veined cheeks, his jowls were aquiver and his thin grey hair dishevelled; he had obviously run here. Mrs Norris came trotting at his heels, gazing up at the owls overhead and mewing hungrily. There was a restless shifting of wings from above and a large brown owl snapped his beak in a menacing fashion.

"Aha!" said Filch, taking a flat‐footed step towards Harry, his pouchy cheeks trembling with anger. "I've had a tip‐off that you are intending to place a massive order for Dungbombs"

Harry folded his arms and stared at the caretaker.

"Who told you 1 was ordering Dungbombs?"

Cho was looking from Harry to Filch, also frowning; the barn owl on her arm, tired of standing on one leg, gave an admonitory hoot but she ignored it.

"I have my sources," said Filch in a self‐satisfied hiss. "Now hand over whatever it is you're sending."

Feeling immensely thankful that he had not dawdled in posting off the letter, Harry said, "I can't, it's gone."

"_Gone?" said Filch, his face contorting with rage._

"Gone," said Harry calmly.

Filch opened his mouth furiously, mouthed for a few seconds, then raked Harrys robes with his eyes.

"How do I know you haven't got it in your pocket?"

"Because ‐"

"I saw him send it," said Cho angrily.

Filch rounded on her.

"You saw him ‐?"

"That's right, I saw him," she said fiercely.

"We – saw – him, Mr. Filch. If you have any doubt, just ask your cat. She's so lovely", Harry heard Echizen's clear explanation.

There was a moments pause in which Filch glared at Cho and Cho glared right back, he surprisingly sent a smile towards Ryoma, then the caretaker turned on his heel, and shuffled back towards the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle and looked back, glared at Harry.

"If I get so much as a whiff of a Dungbomb"

He stumped off down the stairs. Mrs Norris cast a last longing look at the owls, and followed him.

Harry and Cho looked at each other.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"No problem," said Cho, finally fixing the parcel to the barn owl's other leg, her face slightly pink. "You _weren't ordering Dungbombs, were you?"_

"No," said Harry.

"I wonder why he thought you were, then?" she said as she carried the owl to the window.

Harry shrugged. He was quite as mystified by that as she was, though oddly it was not bothering him very much at the moment.

They left the Owlery together. At the entrance of a corridor that led towards the west wing of the castle, Cho said, "I'm going this way. Well, I'll… I'll see you around, Harry."

"Yeah… see you."

She smiled at him and departed. Harry walked on, feeling quietly elated. He had managed to have an entire conversation with her and not embarrassed himself once… _you were really brave standing up to her like that… Cho had called him brave… she did not hate him for being alive…_

Ol course, she had preferred Cedric, he knew that… though if he'd only asked her to the Ball before Cedric had, things might have turned out differently… she had seemed sincerely sorry that she'd had to refuse when Harry asked her…

"Ah, young love", Echizen muttered.

"Shut up", Harry blushed slightly. He almost forgot that the tennis-boy also following him at the moment.

"Morning," Harry said brightly to Ron and Hermione as he joined them at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Echizen took a seat between The Zoldyck brothers.

"What are you looking so pleased about?"said Ron, eyeing Harry in surprise.

"Erm… Quidditch later," said Harry happily, pulling a large platter of bacon and eggs towards him.

"Liar", Ryoma whispered, then he talked so quickly in Japanese. Obviously, he told them about what had happened between Cho and Harry, judging by the giggle that came from their direction.

"Oh… yeah…" said Ron. He put down the piece of toast he was eating and took a large swig of pumpkin juice. Then he said, "Listen… you don't fancy going out a bit earlier with me, do you? Just to ‐ er ‐ give me some practice before training? So I can, you know, get my eye in a bit."

"Yeah, OK," said Harry.

"Look, 1 don't think you should," said Hermione seriously. "You're both really behind on homework as it ‐"

But she broke off; the morning post was arriving and, as usual, the _Daily Prophet was soaring towards her in the beak of a screech owl, which landed perilously close to the sugar bowl and held out a leg. Hermione pushed a Knut into its leather pouch, took the newspaper, and scanned the front page critically as the owl took off._

"Anything interesting?" said Ron. Harry grinned, knowing Ron was keen to keep her off the subject of homework.

"No," she sighed, "just some guff about the bass player in the Weird Sisters getting married."

Hermione opened the paper and disappeared behind it. Harry devoted himself to another helping of eggs and bacon. Ron was staring up at the high windows, looking slightly preoccupied.

"Wait a moment," said Hermione suddenly. "Oh no… Sirius!"

"What's happened?" said Harry, snatching at the paper so violently it ripped down the middle, with him and Hermione each holding one half.

"'_The Ministry of Magic has received a tip‐off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer… blah blah blah… is currently hiding in London!ʺʹ Hermione read from her half in an anguished whisper._

"Lucius Malfoy I'll bet anything," said Harry in a low, furious voice. "He did recognise Sirius on the platform…"

"What?" said Ron, looking alarmed. "You didn't say ‐"

"Shh!" said the other two.

… "Ministry warns _wizarding community that Black is very dangerous… killed thirteen people… broke out of Azkaban …"the usual rubbish," _Hermione concluded, laying down her half of the paper and looking fearfully at Harry and Ron._ "Well, he just won't be able to leave the house again, that's all," _she whispered. "Dumbledore did warn him not to."

"Black. Who's this Black anyway?", Killua asked. Oh, yeah.

"You don't know!", Echizen sounded furious.

"Mass murderer", said Eyes ,"But I bet thousand galleons that Its all is rubbish. Black is innocence", he added while take a sip in his milk.

Harry's eyes widened. Ron and Hermione looked surprised.

"Yeah, he's innocence. Pettigrew is the one who murdered them", Hitsugaya also spoke.

"How d'you know?", asked Alluka.

"Shinigami duty. I perform konsou to those souls", he answered before drank his green tea.

"That Stupid Old man said the Ministry this time has the lowest-quality in the entire history", Ryoma said, took his glass, which is full of Coke.

Harry looked down glumly at the bit of the Prophet he had torn off. Surely the conversation had been lighten his mood. They all thought that Sirius was innocent. Prophet, most of the page was devoted to an advertisement for Madam Malkins Robes for All Occasions, which was apparently having a sale.

"Hey!" he said, flattening it down so Hermione and Ron could see it. "Look at this!"

"I've got all the robes I want," said Ron.

"No," said Harry. "Look… this little piece here…"

Ron and Hermione bent closer to read it; the item was barely an inch long and placed right at the bottom of a column. It was headlined:

TRESPASS AT _MINISTRY_

_Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 3ISI August. __Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watchwizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top‐security door at one oʹclock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defence, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban._

"Sturgis Podmore?" said Ron slowly. "He's that bloke who looks like his head's been thatched, isn't he? He's one of the Ord—"

"Ron, shh!" said Hermione, casting a terrified look around them.

"Six months in Azkaban!" whispered Harry, shocked. "Just for trying to get through a door!'

"Don't be silly, it wasn't just for trying to get through a door. What on earth was he doing at the Ministry of Magic at one o'clock in the morning?" breathed Hermione.

"D'you reckon he was doing something for the Order?" Ron muttered.

"Wait a moment…" said Harry slowly. "Sturgis was supposed to come and see us off, remember?"

The other two looked at him.

'Yeah, he was supposed to be part of our guard going to King's Cross, remember? And Moody was all annoyed because he didn't turn up; so he couldn't have been on a job for them, could he?"

"Well, maybe they didn't expect him to get caught," said Hermione.

"It could be a frame‐up!" Ron exclaimed excitedly. "No ‐ listen!" he went on, dropping his voice dramatically at the threatening look on Hermione's face." The Ministry suspects he's one of Dumbledore's lot so ‐ I dunno ‐ they _lured him to the Ministry, and he wasn't trying to get through a door at all! Maybe they've just made something up to get him!"_

There was a pause while Harry and Hermione considered this. Harry thought it seemed far‐fetched. Hermione, on the other hand, looked rather impressed.

"Do you know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were true."

She folded up her half of the newspaper thoughtfully. As Harry laid down his knife and fork, she seemed to come out of a reverie.

"Right, well, I think we should tackle that essay for Sprout on self‐fertilising shrubs first and if we're lucky we'll be able to start McGonagall's Inanimatus Conjurus Spell before lunch…"

Harry felt a small twinge of guilt at the thought of the pile of homework awaiting him upstairs, but the sky was a clear, exhilarating blue, and he had not been on his Firebolt for a week…

"I mean, we can do it tonight," said Ron.

Not far from them, they heard someone argued.

"Oh, come on Mister Manga. Just get outside and watch them practice", Killua begging.

Eyes was still staring at his manga.

"He expect him to turn from his manga! Hosnestly!", Hitsugaya snapped, looking pissed.

"Just drag him outside", Echizen waved them, then Hitsugaya followed him.

"Good luck, Weasley, Potter!"

Ron looked amused at this, he and Harry walked down the sloping lawns towards the Quidditch pitch, their broomsticks over their shoulders, and with Hermione's dire warnings that they would fail all their OWLs still ringing in their ears. "And we've got tomorrow. She gets too worked up about work, that's her trouble…" There was a pause and he added, in a slightly more anxious tone, "D'you think she meant it when she said we weren't copying from her?"

"Yeah, I do," said Harry. "Still, this is important, too, we've got to practise if we want to stay on the Quidditch team…"

"Yeah, that's right," said Ron, in a heartened tone. "And we have got plenty of time to do it all…"

As they approached the Quidditch pitch, Harry glanced over to his right to where the trees of the Forbidden Forest were swaying darkly. Nothing flew out of them; the sky was empty but for a few distant owls fluttering around the Owlery tower. He had enough to worry about; the flying horse wasn't doing him any harm; he pushed it out of his mind.

They collected balls from the cupboard in the changing room and set to work, Ron guarding the three tall goalposts, Harry playing Chaser and trying to get the Quaffle past Ron. Harry thought Ron was pretty good; he blocked three‐quarters of the goals Harry attempted to put past him and played better the longer they practised. After a couple of hours they returned to the castle for lunch ‐ during which Hermione made it quite clear she thought they were irresponsible — then returned to the Quidditch pitch for the real training session. All their teammates but Angelina were already in the changing room when they entered.

"All right, Ron?" said George, winking at him.

"Yeah," said Ron, who had become quieter and quieter all the way down to the pitch.

"Ready to show us all up, Ickle Prefect?" said Fred, emerging tousle‐haired from the neck of his Quidditch robes, a slightly malicious grin on his face.

"Shut up," said Ron, stony‐faced, pulling on his own team robes for the first time. They fitted him well considering they had been Oliver Wood's, who was rather broader in the shoulder.

"OK, everyone," said Angelina, entering from the Captain's office, already changed. "Let's get to it; Alicia and Fred, if you can just bring out the ball crate for us. Oh, and there are a couple of people out there watching but I want you to just ignore them, all right?"

Something in her would‐be casual voice made Harry think he might know who the uninvited spectators were, and sure enough, when they left the changing room for the bright sunlight of the pitch it was to a storm of catcalls and jeers from the Slytherin Quidditch team and assorted hangers‐on, who were grouped halfway up the empty stands and whose voices echoed loudly around the stadium.

"What's that Weasley's riding?" Malfoy called in his sneering drawl. 'Why would anyone put a flying charm on a mouldy old log like that?"

Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson guffawed and shrieked with laughter. Ron mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground and Harry followed him, watching his ears turn red from behind.

"Ignore them," he said, accelerating to catch up with Ron, "we'll see who's laughing after we play them…"

"Exactly the attitude I want, Harry," said Angelina approvingly, soaring around them with the Quaffle under her arm and slowing to hover on the spot in front of her airborne team. "OK, everyone, we're going to start with some passes just to warm up, the whole team please ‐"

"Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle, anyway?' shrieked Pansy Parkinson from below. "Why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?"

"Yeah. And it's pretty good, comparing to your snake hair, Old Hag", Harry heard Echizen snapped Pansy.

Angelina swept her long braided hair out of her face, smiling at the Gryffindors' first year direction, and continued calmly, "Spread out, then, and let's see what we can do…"

Harry reversed away from the others to the far side of the pitch. Ron fell back towards the opposite goal. Angelina raised the Quaffle with one hand and threw it hard to Fred, who passed to George, who passed to Harry, who passed to Ron, who dropped it.

The Slytherins, led by Malfoy, roared and screamed with laughter. Ron, who had pelted towards the ground to catch the Quaffle before it landed, pulled out of the dive untidily, so that he slipped sideways on his broom, and returned to playing height, blushing.

From far Harry could feel Hitsugaya was in angry mode. The air was suddenly so cold. Harry saw Fred and George exchange looks, but uncharacteristically neither of them said anything, for which he was grateful.

"Pass it on, Ron," called Angelina, as though nothing had happened.

Ron threw the Quaffle to Alicia, who passed back to Harry, who passed to George…

"Hey, Potter, how's your scar feeling?" called Malfoy. "Sure you don't need a lie down? It must be, what, a whole week since you were in the hospital wing, that's a record for you, isn't it?"

"Knock him off before I become a murderer, will you?", Killua pleaded to Hitsugaya

Harry heard a scream but he didn't turn his head. May be Hitsugaya was just freezing Malfoy.

George passed to Angelina; she reverse‐passed to Harry, who had not been expecting it, but caught it in the very tips of his fingers and passed it quickly to Ron, who lunged for it and missed by inches.

"Come on now, Ron" said Angelina crossly, as he dived for the ground again, chasing the Quaffle. "Pay attention."

It would have been hard to say whether Ron's face or the Quaffle was a deeper scarlet when he again returned to playing height. Harry didn't hear any laughter or comments from the Slytherin.

On his third attempt, Ron caught the Quaffle; perhaps out of relief he passed it on so enthusiastically that it soared straight through Katie's outstretched hands and hit her hard in the face.

'Sorry!" Ron groaned, zooming forwards to see whether he had done any damage.

"Get back in position, she's fine!" barked Angelina. "But as you're passing to a teammate, do try not to knock her off her broom, won't you? We've got Bludgers for that!"

Katie's nose was bleeding. Fred and George converged on Katie.

"Here, take this," Fred told her, handing her something small and purple from out of his pocket, "it'll clear it up in no time."

"All right," called Angelina, "Fred, George, go and get your bats and a Bludger. Ron, get up to the goalposts. Harry, release the Snitch when I say so. We're going to aim for Ron's goal, obviously."

Harry zoomed off after the twins to fetch the Snitch.

"Ron's making a right pig's ear of things, isn't he?" muttered George, as the three of them landed at the crate containing the balls and opened it to extract one of the Bludgers and the Snitch.

"He's just nervous," said Harry, "he was fine when I was practising with him this morning."

"Yeah, well, I hope he hasn't peaked too soon," said Fred gloomily.

They returned to the air. When Angelina blew her whistle, Harry released the Snitch and Fred and George let fly the Bludger. From that moment on, Harry was barely aware of what the others were doing. It was his job to recapture the tiny fluttering golden ball that was worth a hundred and fifty points to the Seeker's team and doing so required enormous speed and skill. He accelerated, rolling and swerving in and out of the Chasers, the warm autumn air whipping his face.

"Stop ‐ stop ‐ STOP!" screamed Angelina. "Ron ‐ you're not covering your middle post!"

Harry looked round at Ron, who was hovering in front of the left‐hand hoop, leaving the other two completely unprotected.

"Oh… sorry…"

"You keep shifting around while you're watching the Chasers!" said Angelina. "Either stay in centre position until you have to move to defend a hoop, or else circle the hoops, but don't drift vaguely off to one side, that's how you let in the last three goals!"

"Sorry…" Ron repeated, his red face shining like a beacon against the bright blue sky.

"And Katie, can't you do something about that nosebleed?"

"It's just getting worse!" said Katie thickly, attempting to stem the flow with her sleeve.

Harry glanced round at Fred, who was looking anxious and checking his pockets. He saw Fred pull out something purple, examine it for a second and then look round at Katie, evidently horror‐struck.

"Well, let's try again," said Angelina.

This time they had been flying for barely three minutes when Angelinas whistle sounded. Harry, who had just sighted the Snitch circling the opposite goalpost, pulled up feeling distinctly aggrieved.

"What now?" he said impatiently to Alicia, who was nearest.

"Katie," she said shortly.

Harry turned and saw Angelina, Fred and George all flying as fast as they could towards Katie. Harry and Alicia sped towards her, too. It was plain that Angelina had stopped training just in time; Katie was now chalk white and covered in blood.

"She needs the hospital wing," said Angelina.

"We'll take her," said Fred. "She ‐ er ‐ might have swallowed a Blood Blisterpod by mistake ‐"

"Well, there's no point continuing with no Beaters and a Chaser gone," said Angelina glumly as Fred and George zoomed off towards the castle supporting Katie between them. "Come on, let's go and get changed."

"How was practice?" asked Hermione rather coolly half an hour later, as Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room.

"It was ‐" Harry began.

"Completely lousy," said Ron in a hollow voice, sinking into a chair beside Hermione. She looked up at Ron and her frostiness seemed to melt.

"Well, it was only your first one," she said consolingly, "it's bound to take time to ‐"

"Who said it was me who made it lousy?" snapped Ron.

"No one," said Hermione, looking taken aback, "I thought ‐"

"You thought I was bound to be rubbish?"

"No, of course I didn't! Look, you said it was lousy so I just ‐"

"I'm going to get started on some homework," said Ron angrily and stomped off to the staircase to the boysʹ dormitories and vanished from sight. Hermione turned to Harry.

"Was he lousy?"

"No," said Harry loyally.

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Well, I suppose he could've played better," Harry muttered, "but it was only the first training session, like you said…"

"Of course he was better", Hermione turned and saw Killua said coolly.

"We just go back. From Honeydukes..", Alluka explained.

"I almost kill someone again. It's hard being a good boy ", Killua muttered.

"Again?", Alluka asked, handing a Chocholate Frog to him.

"I'm retired, you know. Thanks Hitsugaya", he replied.

"No problem, Zoldyck. I actually want to freeze that Blonde-Boy. He makes me sick this far", Hitsugaya answered.

"He just freezing Malfoy and sending him to Hospital Wing", Eyes informed them.

Hermione just rolled her eyes. But she suddenly exclaimed.

"You sneak out to Hogsmead!"

"Thanks for realizing it Miss Perfect Prefect. He actually sneaks out to the Stupid-Candy-Store, every day", Hitsugaya replied coolly, pointed to the elder Zoldyck who seemed staring into the hearth.

"But how?", asked Harry. Killua obviously didn't have the Marauders Map or the Invisibility Cloak.

Hitsugaya just shrugged his shoulder.

"Come on! We need to start Binn's essay and answer McGonagall's questions", Eyes said. and then they went to their room, looking into books, parchments, and all stuffs for doing thier homework.

Neither Harry nor Ron seemed to make much headway with their homework that night. Harry knew Ron was too preoccupied with how badly he had performed at Quidditch practice.

They spent the whole of Sunday in the common room, buried in their books while the room around them filled up, then emptied. It was another clear, fine day and most of their fellow Gryffindors spent the day out in the grounds, enjoying what might well be some of the last sunshine that year. By the evening, Harry felt as though somebody had been beating his brain against the inside of his skull.

"You know, we probably should try and get more homework done during the week," Harry muttered to Ron, as they finally laid aside Professor McGonagall's long essay on the Inanimatus Conjurus Spell and turned miserably to Professor Sinistra's equally long and difficult essay about Jupiter's many moons.

"Yeah," said Ron, rubbing slightly bloodshot eyes and throwing his fifth spoiled bit of parchment into the fire beside them. "Listen… shall we just ask Hermione if we can have a look at what she's done?"

Harry glanced over at her; she was sitting with Crookshanks on her lap and chatting merrily to Ginny as a pair of knitting needles flashed in midair in front of her, now knitting a pair of shapeless elf socks.

"No," he said heavily, "you know she won't let us.", when he glanced at the only few first year who stayed next to them. Killua yawned and put his quill. He smiled at Harry's direction before speaking in Japanese to Eyes, Hitsugaya, Alluka, and Echizen, who also had done for their homework. Ron noticed them.

"Bloody hell!", said Ron, as he pointed the first year student's essays. All of them, written neatly, almost one and half meters long. Next to them, there were two others essays for each student, which were longer by thirty centimeters.

"Just what we need", he grumbled,"another Percy"

"Or more than a Percy. Five Percies", replied Harry.

And so Harry and Ron worked on while the sky outside the windows became steadily darker. Slowly, the crowd in the common room began to thin again. Harry saw Hitsugaya wrote something in Japanese, he couldn't read the funny symbol. Killua and Alluka read Hogwarts, A History, much to his surprise. Eyes was reading his manga, of course, while Echizen was just flipping page, he read his Potion's book.

At half past eleven, Hermione wandered over to them, yawning.

"Nearly done?"

"No," said Ron shortly.

"Jupiter's biggest moon is Ganymede, not Callisto," she said, pointing over Ron's shoulder at a line in his Astronomy essay, "and it's lo that's got the volcanoes."

"Thanks," snarled Ron, scratching out the offending sentences.

"Sorry, I only ‐"

"Yeah, well, if you've just come over here to criticise ‐"

"Ron ‐"

"I haven't got time to listen to a sermon, all right, Hermione, I'm up to my neck in it here ‐"

"No ‐ look!"

Hermione was pointing to the nearest window. Harry and Ron both looked over. A handsome screech owl was standing on the windowsill, gazing into the room at Ron.

"Isn't that Hermes?" said Hermione, sounding amazed.

"Blimey, it is!" said Ron quietly, throwing down his quill and getting to his feet. "What's Percy writing to me for?"

He crossed to the window and opened it; Hermes flew inside, landed on Ron's essay and held out a leg to which a letter was attached. Ron took the letter off it and the owl departed at once, leaving inky footprints across Ron's drawing of the moon lo.

"That's definitely Percy's handwriting," said Ron, sinking back into his chair and staring at the words on the outside of the scroll: _Ronald Weasley, Gryffindor House, Hogwarts. He looked up at the other two. "What d'you reckon?"_

"Open it!" said Hermione eagerly, and Harry nodded.

Ron unrolled the scroll and began to read. The further down the parchment his eyes travelled, the more pronounced became his scowl. When he had finished reading, he looked disgusted. He thrust the letter at Harry and Hermione, who leaned towards each other to read it together:

_Dear Ron,_

_I have only just heard (from no less a person than the Minister for Magic himself, who has it from your new teacher, Professor Umbridge) that you have become a Hogwarts prefect._

_was most pleasantly surprised when I heard this news and must firstly offer my congratulations. 1 must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the ʹFred and George' route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility._

_But I want to give you more than congratulations, Ron, I want to give you some advice, which is why I am sending this at night rather than by the usual morning post. Hopefully, you will be able to read this away from prying eyes and avoid awkward questions._

_From something the Minister let slip when telling me you are now a prefect, I gather that you are still seeing a lot of Harry Potter. 1 must tell you, Ron, that nothing could put you in danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternisation with that boy. Yes, I am sure you are surprised to hear this ‐ no doubt you will say that Potter has always been Dumbledoreʹs favourite — but I feel bound to tell you that Dumbledore may not be in charge at Hogwarts much longer and the people who count have a very different ‐ and probably more accurate ‐ view of Potterʹs behaviour. I shall say no more here, but if you look at the Daily Prophet_

_tomorrow you will get a good idea of the way the wind is blowing — __and see if you can spot yours truly!_

_Seriously, Ron, you do not want to be tarred with the same brush as Potter, it could be very damaging to your future prospects, and I am talking here about life after school, too. As you must be aware, given that our father escorted him to court, Potter had a disciplinary hearing this summer in front of the whole Wizengamot and he did not come _

_out of it looking too good. He got off on a mere technicality, if you ask me, and many of the people Iʹve spoken to remain convinced of his guilt._

_It may be that you are afraid to sever ties with Potter ‐ / __know that he can be unbalanced and, for all I know, violent ‐ but if you have any worries about this, or have spotted anything else in Potter's behaviour that is troubling you, I urge you to speak to Dolores Umbridge, a truly delightful woman who I know will be only too happy to advise you._

_This leads me to my other bit of advice. As I have hinted above, Dumbledore's regime at Hogwarts may soon be over. Your loyalty, Ron, should be not to him, but to the school and the Ministry. I am very sorry to hear that, so far, Professor Umbridge is encountering very little co‐operation from staff as she strives to make those necessary changes within Hogwarts that the Ministry so ardently desires (although she should find this easier from next week — again, see the Daily Prophet __tomorrow!). I shall say only this ‐ a student who shows himself willing to help Professor Umbridge now may be very well‐placed for Head Boyship in a couple of years!_

_I am sorry that I was unable to see more of you over the summer. It pains me to criticise our parents, but I am afraid i can no longer live under their roof while they remain mixed up with the dangerous crowd around Dumbledore. (If you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledoreʹs, has recently been sent to Azkabanfor trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders.) I count myself very lucky to have escaped the stigma of association with such people ‐ the Minister really could not be more gracious to me — and 1 do hope, Ron, that you will_

_not allow family ties to blind you to the misguided nature of our parents' beliefs and actions, either. I sincerely hope that, in time, they will realise how mistaken they were and I shall, of course, be ready to accept a full apology when that day comes._

_Please think over what I have said most carefully, particularly the bit about Harry Potter, and congratulations again on becoming prefect._

_Your brother,_

_Percy_

Harry looked up at Ron.

"Well," he said, trying to sound as though he found the whole thing a joke, "if you want to ‐ er ‐ what is it?" ‐ he checked Percy's letter ‐ "Oh yeah ‐ ʺsever tiesʺ with me, I swear I won't get violent."

"Give it back," said Ron, holding out his hand. "He is ‐" Ron said jerkily, tearing Percy's letter in half "the world's ‐" he tore it into quarters "biggest ‐" he tore it into eighths "git." He threw the pieces into the fire.

"Come on, we've got to get this finished sometime before dawn," he said briskly to Harry, pulling Professor Sinistra's essay back towards him.

Hermione was looking at Ron with an odd expression on her face.

"Oh, give them here," she said abruptly.

"What?" said Ron.

"Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them," she said.

"Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you're a life‐saver," said Ron, "what can I ‐?"

"What you can say is, ʺWe promise we'll never leave our homework this late again,ʺʹ she said, holding out both hands for their essays, but she looked slightly amused all the same.

"Thanks a million, Hermione," said Harry weakly, passing over his essay and sinking back into his armchair, rubbing his eyes.

It was now past midnight and the common room was deserted but for the three of them and Crookshanks. The only sound was that of Hermione's quill scratching out sentences here and there on their essays and the ruffle of pages as she checked various facts in the reference books strewn across the table. Harry was exhausted. He also felt an odd, sick, empty feeling in his stomach that had nothing to do with tiredness and everything to do with the letter now curling blackly in the heart of the fire.

He knew that half the people inside Hogwarts thought him strange, even mad; he knew that the _Daily Prophet had been making snide allusions to him for months, but there was something about seeing it written down like that in Percys writing, about knowing that Percy was advising Ron to drop him and even to tell tales about him to Umbridge, that made his situation real to him as nothing else_

had. He had known Percy for four years, had stayed in his house during the summer holidays, shared a tent with him during the Quidditch World Cup, had even been awarded full marks by him in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament last year, yet now, Percy thought him unbalanced and possibly violent.

And with a surge of sympathy for his godfather, Harry thought Sirius was probably the only person he knew who could really understand how he felt at the moment, because Sirius was in the same situation. Nearly everyone in the wizarding world thought Sirius a dangerous murderer and a great Voldemort supporter and he had had to live with that knowledge for fourteen years…

Harry blinked. He had just seen something in the fire that could not have been there. It had flashed into sight and vanished immediately. No… it could not have been… he had imagined it because he had been thinking about Sirius…

"OK, write that down," Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron, "then add this conclusion I've written for you."

"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met," said Ron weakly, "and if I'm ever rude to you again ‐"

"‐ I'll know you're back to normal," said Hermione. "Harry, yours is OK except for this bit at the end, I think you must have misheard Professor Sinistra, Europa's covered in ice, not mice ‐Harry?"

Harry had slid off his chair on to his knees and was now crouching on the singed and threadbare hearthrug, gazing into the flames.

"Er ‐ Harry?" said Ron uncertainly. "Why are you down there?"

"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire," said Harry.

He spoke quite calmly; after all, he had seen Sirius's head in this very fire the previous year and talked to it, too; nevertheless, he could not be sure that he had really seen it this time… it had vanished so quickly…

"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too ‐ Sirius!"

She gasped, gazing at the fire; Ron dropped his quill. There in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long dark hair falling around his grinning face.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared," he said. "I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry said, half‐laughing.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear."

"But what if you'd been seen?" said Hermione anxiously.

"Well, I think a girl ‐ first‐year, by the look of her ‐ might've got a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry" Sirius said hastily, as Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth, "I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly‐shaped log or something."

"Of course not, Mr. Black. Nice to meet you", Hitsugaya just stood up next to Harry.

Sirius blinked.

"Pleasure to meet you, Hitsugaya-san! Ah, I see! Two Zoldyck, one Echizen, and one Manikmaya", said Sirius.

"How - d'you - k-know each other?", Hermione stumbled.

"Hitsugaya's in Order. Rest of them I know cause of Family", added Sirius.

"Family?", asked Harry.

_"Hitsugaya's in Order?",_ Hermione almost shouted.

"Shshssh", Hitsugaya silnced her.

"We're pure blood", Echizen said simply.

"Hey, it's Order what?", asked Killua suddenly.

"I can't explain here. I almost surprise that Zoldycks and Echizen attend Hogwarts", replied Sirius.

"And your mother wouldn't approve it", he added.

"Whatever. By the way, yesterday I got this...Echizen, Eyes, and Alluka too", Killua waved a letter to Hitsugaya's direction, handed three letter, which were written in Japanese.

"Voldemort", Hitsugaya glanced at Sirius,"..he wants them to join him."

"WHAT?", Harry, Ron, and Hermione yelled.

"Not so loud, senpai! Of course we refuse it", answered Echizen.

"Obviously you need to talk with Dumbledore, Hitsugaya", said Sirius.

"Yes, tomorrow I will talk to him. Voldemort gets suspicious about them. May be after the incident in the train", he mumbled, remembering Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle who used the Unforgivable Curse to them.

"Your family-", asked Hermione, she looked worried.

"They're safe. Who in this world want to hurt that Baka Oyaji, and Mom is skillful enough, she's an auror", added Ryoma.

"Yeah...yeah..the rest of my family are all assassins, no offense", Alluka waved his hand.

"Eyes?", asked Hermione.

"My parents live in the biggest city in the world, and they surely wise enough not to use magic in the last fifteen years, ", said Eyes.

"Let's continue reading then", Killua dragged his brother, realizing that there would be a private conversation over The Golden Trio and Sirius. Echizen, and Eyes sat and read their books again, while Hitsugaya went back and continued to wrote his report.

"But, Sirius, this is taking an awful risk, if they catch you" Hermione began, after saw the first year sat and did their previous activities.

"You sound like Molly," said Sirius. This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harrys letter without resorting to a code ‐ and codes are breakable."

At the mention of Harry's letter, Hermione and Ron both turned to stare at him.

"You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!" said Hermione accusingly.

"I forgot," said Harry, which was perfectly true; his meeting with Cho in the Owlery had driven everything before it out of his mind. "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?"

"No, it was very good," said Sirius, smiling. "Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed ‐ your scar."

"What about ‐?" Ron began, but Hermione interrupted him. . "We'll tell you afterwards. Go on, Sirius."

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?"

"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion," said Harry, ignoring, as usual, Ron and Hermione's winces. "So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention."

"Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often," said Sirius.

"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked.

"I doubt it," said Sirius. "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater ‐"

"She's foul enough to be one," said Harry darkly, and Ron and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," said Sirius with a wry smile. "I know she's a nasty piece of work, though — you should hear Remus talk about her."

"Does Lupin know her?" asked Harry quickly, remembering Umbridge's comments about dangerous half‐breeds during her first lesson.

"No," said Sirius, "but she drafted a bit of anti‐werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job."

Harry remembered how much shabbier Lupin looked these days and his dislike of Umbridge deepened even further.

"What's she got against werewolves?ʺ said Hermione angrily.

"Scared of them, I expect," said Sirius, smiling at her indignation. "Apparently she loathes part‐humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year, too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose."

Ron laughed but Hermione looked upset.

"Sirius!" she said reproachfully. "Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher, I'm sure he'd respond. After all, you are the only member of his family he's got left, and Professor Dumbledore said ‐"

"So, what are Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interrupted. "Is she training you all to kill half‐breeds?"

"No," said Harry, ignoring Hermione's affronted look at being cut off in her defence of Kreacher. "She's not letting us use magic at all!"

"All we do is read the stupid textbook," said Ron.

"Ah, well, that figures," said Sirius. "Our information Irom inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"_Trained in combat!" repeated Harry incredulously. "What does he think weʹre doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?"_

_"Stupid Ministry"_, Harry heard Eyes cursed under his breath._  
_

"That's exactly what he thinks you're doing," said Sirius, "or, rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing ‐ forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic."

There was a pause at this, then Ron said, "That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with."

"So we're being prevented from learning Defence Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells against the Ministry?" said Hermione, looking furious.

"Yep," said Sirius. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped‐up charge."

This reminded Harry of Percy's letter.

"D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the _Daily Prophet tomorrow? Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be ‐ʹ"_

"I don't know," said Sirius, "I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here

There was a definite note of bitterness in Sirius's voice.

"So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?"

"Ah…" said Sirius, "well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened to him." Then, seeing their stricken faces, he added quickly, "But Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you three get yourselves in a state; I'm sure Hagrid's fine."

"But if he was supposed to be back by now…"said Hermione in a small, anxious voice.

"Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home ‐ but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt or ‐ well, nothing to suggest he's not perfectly OK."

Unconvinced, Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged worried looks.

"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid," said Sirius hastily, "it'll just draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be OK." And when they did not appear cheered by this, Sirius added, "When's your next Hogsmeade weekend, anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could —"

"NO!" said Harry and Hermione together, very loudly.

"Sirius, didn't you see the _Daily Prophet?" said Hermione anxiously._

"Oh, that," said Sirius, grinning, "they're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue ‐"

"Yeah, but we think this time they have," said Harry. "Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you, and his father was on the platform, Sirius ‐ you know, Lucius Malfoy ‐ so don't come up here, whatever you do. If Malfoy recognises you again ‐"

"All right, all right, I've got the point," said Sirius. He looked most displeased. "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together."

"I would, I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!" said Harry.

There was a pause in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes.

"Senpai! We're going to sleep", Killua waved back to them who glanced at the first year, who just walked upstair.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded.

"You're less like your father than I thought," Sirius said finally, a definite coolness in his voice." The risk would've been what made it fun for James."

"Look ‐"

"Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs," said Sirius, but Harry was sure he was lying. "Til write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?"

There was a tiny _pop, and the place where Sirius's head had been was flickering flame once more._

* * *

**Oh, yeah! Long long time not update! Finally! Thank you for the reviews! Thank you so much! By the way, if you find a mistake, just tell me so I can fix it up! My grammar isn't the awesome one**_, _**and I type this in a computer which doesn't have the grammar and spelling-checking**_. _**I know it's a boring chapter. The next will be awesome...Will Dumbledore let them to join the Order? Ah, well...thanks for reading!**

**Mind to Review?**

**Light Lamperouge  
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